The nation's social agenda for improving education and training has converged with national economic forces (Hornbeck & Salamon, 1991). The emphasis on lifelong learning of the workforce through education, training and development, demands for ever-improving productivity and significant technological advancements have required new tools to…

At a time when college degrees are increasingly a prerequisite for middle-class wages, less than 40 percent of college students are able to demonstrate proficiency on literacy tests, barely half of college students graduate on time, and many do not graduate at all. At the same time. the price of college continues to increase quickly and…

This document describes the rationale and the strategy of the new United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Initiative for literacy: LIFE. The Literacy Initiative for Empowerment (LIFE) is designed as a global strategic framework through which national governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), civil…

Spurred by federal and state mandates for improved performance, school districts across the country have become adept at establishing districtwide goals to raise student achievement. They have identified learning gaps among various student populations and now seek to close them. They have targeted improved performance in reading or math by grade…

The American Evaluation Association's (AEA) Independent Consulting Topical Interest Group (IC TIG) has a membership of over eight hundred individuals who generally work as sole proprietors, in partnerships, or in small consulting firms. Well over a decade ago, the IC TIG conducted a survey of its membership (Bonnet, 1992). To gather current data…

The Strategic Planning Evaluation of Curriculum Assessment of Performance (SPECAP) project was designed by Texas Tech University to assess the implementation of programs by 25 tech prep consortia in Texas. This report describes the most effective tech prep practices discovered by SPECAP through analyses of consortia planning and implementation…

In response to unprecedented reductions in budget and personnel and changes in technology, Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) developed this agenda for change to update its strategic plan to position the college for the 21st century. First, an overview is provided of PVCC's restructuring effort, highlighting causes and four planning…

This final report describes the Inclusion through Transdisciplinary Teaming (ITT) project, which provided support to personnel working in schools, child care centers, and Head Start programs as they designed and provided services that included young children with disabilities and their families. During its 3 years of outreach, ITT project staff…

This monograph presents the Strategic Directions Charter of Indiana University, which recommends ways the university should change in order to adapt to constraining circumstances and to emerge as the model of America's New Public University. It discusses in detail the 30 recommendations of the Charter, developed by 250 members of the University…

This monograph presents the proceedings of two symposia on assistive technology for people with disabilities in Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and Palau. Following an overview, Sections 1 and 2 contain the presentations and…

This case study of a higher education policy-making process tested a conceptual model based on a combination of political systems, behavioral power, and influence theories. The study, which followed the course and outcomes of a branch campus policy formulated in Washington state over a four-year period (1985-89), sought to show that the ability of…

This paper addresses challenges faced by the Montana University System in meeting the educational demands of a new knowledge age. The paper is organized into two sections; the first considers six factors that lay a foundation for four policy issues addressed in the second part. The six issues discussed in Part 1 include: (1) financial…

Many colleges and universities are engaged in new efforts to assess the outcomes they produce. As a first step, these institutions usually examine their mission statement, goals, and objectives. These form the foundation for assessment but they are also fundamental tools for enhancing institutional effectiveness in general. This handbook was…

This monograph presents four papers on the interaction of the market and higher education institutions in relation to the evolution of management and administrative patterns according to the requirements of new political and economic situations. In particular, the papers discuss the changes which a market ideology has brought to European higher…

The report considers the interaction of trends in information technology and trends in research practices and the policy implications for archives. The information is divided into 4 sections. The first section, an "Overview of Information Technology Trends," discusses end-user computing, which includes ubiquitous computing, end-user…