Efforts by community colleges to become more learning-centered reflect the reforms taking place in traditional higher education. In addition to making learning the highest priority, American education must continue to overhaul its outdated, traditional framework restricted by time, place, bureaucracy, and limited teacher roles. The ideal model of…

Studies of vocational education and training (VET) students' movement into higher education (HE) typically show that VET students granted admission perform at least as well as other admitted applicants; however, such students are often less likely to gain admission in the first place. A move toward competency-based training (CBT) and a concomitant…

Laney's Success Model for First-Year Students attempts to increase retention by accommodating students and encouraging learning. It requires an institutional commitment for student academic success and tries to dispel the forces of attrition: academic boredom, difficulty adjusting to college life, and academic underpreparedness. The first-year…

This symposium on issues in training consists of three presentations. "Improving Customer Service Training in Korea" (Namhee Kim) reports findings from interviews of customer service employees who identified these customer service issues: training for service recovery is needed; additional service gives a strong impression to customers;…

This document contains 22 brief summaries of the progress made by Pennsylvania Adult Education Section 353 Special Demonstration projects in meeting their goals and objectives. For each project, the following information is included: project director and number; purpose; impact; outcomes; conclusions and recommendations; project continuation and…

A literature review of 132 studies of School-to-Work programs and consultations with the staff of the National School-to-Work Office, researchers, and practitioners in the field drew conclusions about the effectiveness of the School-to-Work initiative. Some of the study's conclusions were the following: (1) School-to-Work students maintain good…

Current school improvement tools are largely piecemeal and often lack credible supportive evidence. Knowledge Work Supervision (KWS) is built on the premise that schools must develop the capacity for sustaining districtwide improvements. Chapter 1, "The Past Before Us Is Not the Future," summarizes the key elements of the four phases of…

This volume features the reform journeys of six American high schools. The six high schools portrayed here include four large comprehensive high schools (Oakland Technical High in Oakland, California, and Brighton High in Boston, Massachusetts, are urban; Sir Francis Drake in Marin County, California, and Rex Putnam in North Clackamas, Oregon, are…

This paper presents background information on "why" some students may not be responsive to the traditional lecture/discussion classroom format. It offers a model, based on a "high-tech," state-of-the-art classroom facility, for revitalizing lectures. The author recounts her own classroom experiences as she attempted to integrate technology into…

This report presents a collection of papers that focuses on a coordinated approach to raising the socioeconomic status of Hispanic Americans living in California. After presenting "The Need for a Coordinated Approach," the papers are: "Preschool Access" (Theresa Garcia, Sandra Gutierrez, and Giovanna Stark); "K-12…

This monograph is comprised of 12 essays related to the federal Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), each of which serves as a generic primer on a topic relevant to work force development staff and researchers nationwide. The essays are "Learning the Language of LMI (Labor Market Information): Basic Labor Market Information Terms and…

Implementation of the High Schools That Work (HSTW) key practices improved achievement for career-bound students in these four ways: (1) HSTW sites showed significant improvement in average reading and math scores; (2) the percentage of career- bound students meeting HSTW performance goals in 1994 and 1996 increased from 33% to 43% in reading and…

Good news about reading achievement of career-bound students at High Schools That Work (HSTW) sites includes the following: (1) 60% of the 260 sites that tested students in 1993/94 and again in 1996 saw improvement in reading scores; (2) the performance of all students majority and minority improved significantly; (3) HSTW sites widened the gap…

The mathematics achievement of career-bound students at High Schools That Work (HSTW) sites in 1996 was compared to performance levels at HSTW sites in 1993-1994. Forty-nine percent of the 260 HSTW sites improved their average mathematics scores over the period, with the percentage of career-bound students meeting the HSTW mathematics goal of 295…

The academic achievement of students in business and marketing programs at High Schools That Work (HSTW) sites in 1996 was compared to performance levels in 1994. Between 1994 and 1996, the average reading scores of business students at HSTW sites increased from 271 to 279, and their average mathematics scores increased from 286 to 290. A higher…