There is currently a great deal of controversy about a critical issue in educational research: What constitutes valid evidence for determining whether educational innovations are effective? One side of the controversy is reflected in the U.S. Department of Education's current policies and funding programs. This side emphasizes methodological…

Viewpoints is a multimedia package containing two audio CDs and a brief, informative booklet. This volume of Viewpoints focuses on issues related to high school reform. This booklet offers background information explaining the issues surrounding high school reform with perspectives from research, policy, and practice. It also provides a list of…

In 2005, the Minister of Alberta Advanced Education initiated a comprehensive exercise to establish a new direction for Alberta's advanced education system. Through the A Learning Alberta review, a new vision and policy outcomes for the advanced education system will be articulated. The process provides an opportunity for government, stakeholders,…

This report describes ongoing efforts of the Maine Department of Education to encourage high school improvement through state-level actions. Three intertwined strategies have added value to the individual schools' improvement efforts, including: (1) the drafting of a statewide reform framework called Promising Futures; (2) the creation of a new…

This paper reports on research conducted to determine if United States' community college model can be applied to higher education systems in developing countries. The author examined Vietnam's higher education system and conducted a case study of Can Tho University (CTU) in the Mekong Delta. First, common characteristics found among community…

This document briefly describes one school district's experiences after deciding on a comprehensive guidance program model. The district chose the model described by Gysbers and Henderson (2000). A description is presented of the development, adoption, and implementation of the program. Staff and program assumptions needed for implementation are…

Much has been written about how counselors can become more multiculturally competent in their research, practice, and academic training. To date, great changes have taken place in the integration of multicultural issues into coursework, publications, and research. The next step for counselors is to include that of social activist along side of the…

Noting that educators are charged with the task of promoting lifelong development and self-sufficiency in students through academic excellence, this report discusses how community schools in Illinois provide an innovative route for achieving the vision of enabling all Illinois students to become confident, self-sufficient, and productive citizens.…

This report examines the impact on students in the field of environmental studies. The study looked at how environmental studies courses and programs, which present biogeochemical facts to inform students of current problems and issues in the state of the planet, could change student attitude and behavior in relation to both the discipline of…

This document summarizes the results obtained by the AprenDes project in 2004, the project's first year of implementation. It provides the principal findings on program performance from a baseline in May 2004 to the end of the school year (late October 2004). Progress on a number of project objectives related to decentralized school- and…

This paper reports the results of a study to determine implementation profiles within a sample of 179 participants from a variety of education and business fields. Implementation profiling identifies the conditions that participants perceive are most important when implementing an innovation. Information about the relative importance of the eight…

Survey research was conducted to describe university faculty innovation concerns and perceptions that influence the adoption and diffusion of a course management system (CMS). Significant differences were found between adopters and nonadopters on their perceptions of the CMS attributes, on their Stages of Concern, and on their communication…

This paper describes a longitudinal study of a residential outdoor education school program in Australia. Specifically, the research tracked 409 ninth-grade students for up to 24 months to determine the impact on boys and girls of an extended-stay outdoor education program. The program is located at Timbertop, a coeducational school in a…

A study of teacher perceptions regarding a proposal to adopt block scheduling was done at a small-city high school located in a predominantly rural county. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 selected teachers from the faculty of 41. Lack of communication was found to be the central theme in the resistance that emerged. This paper…

This final report discusses the outcomes of a project that conducted six research studies to investigate the use of an effective teaching approach and visual display enhancements in content instruction for adolescents with learning disabilities. Four studies compared various components of the effective teaching approach with a traditional lecture…