The Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) is dedicated to providing high school students opportunities to enroll in college-level courses while in high school. The advantages of such accelerated opportunities are both financial and educational. The AP Program is available internationally. As a result of its widespread availability, considerable effort…

The 12th Annual Building on Family Strengths Conference was held from June 23rd through June 25th 2005 in Portland, Oregon. Highlights included: (1) An information-packed keynote address by Dr. Richard M. Lerner on promoting positive youth development through enhancing the assets of communities; (2) An exciting research plenary panel session that…

Based on an ethnographic case study done in an all-white, rural middle school, this article examines the students' experience with and interpretation of an international education program implemented with a hope of providing more global/international contents to the curriculum. The study shows that these students interpreted other cultures…

In 2007, the Texas Legislature (80th Texas Legislature, Regular Session, 2007) authorized the creation of the Texas Rural Technology (R-Tech) Pilot program, which provides $8 million in funding to support rural districts in implementing technology-based supplemental education programs. In order to be eligible for funding, districts must have…

Educational access and retention issues for low-wage working parents were examined in a study conducted at six community colleges nationwide. Three focus groups were held at each community college--one each for current community college students, those who had enrolled, in but not completed a community college program, and those who had never…

The reasons why undereducated individuals choose not to participate in adult education were examined in a comparative, qualitative case study that was conducted in eight nonmetropolitan sites (including the pilot site) in diverse economic regions across Kentucky. Data were collected from the following sources: in-depth interviews with 84 adults…

The National Assessment Summit was designed to bring together users and producers of assessments and engage them in a discussion of unmet assessment needs and untapped assessment capacities. The meeting was truly a summit in that national foreign language organizations and associations were asked to nominate representatives to bring their…

Interactive television (iTV) is a new media technology that has great potential for supporting second language learning, particularly for independent adult learners. It has many characteristics demanded by modern second language (L2) learning theories and is technologically quite sophisticated. However, in order for it to succeed it needs to fit…

There is little doubt that the advent of collaborative technologies in recent years has brought some significant changes in the way students learn, communicate, and interact with one another. In recent years, this emergence has sparked increased interest for research into the role and impact of instructional technologies on group learning. Despite…

This qualitative study investigated the barriers against and strategies for promoting the involvement of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) parents in school-based transition planning. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with 31 parents from Native American, African American and Hispanic communities, and 10 professionals who had…

This document reports on barriers to the advancement of minority men and all women into decision-making positions in the private sector that were identified through a study of information from the following sources: 126 employers and employees testifying at public hearings in 5 U.S. cities; 18 commissioned research papers; survey of a sample of 25…

The National Literacy Secretariat (NLS) is a grants and contributions initiative established in 1987. The NLS has two objectives: (1) To increase opportunities and take-up, so that people improve their reading and writing skills; and (2) To work towards making Canada's social, economic and political life more accessible to those with weak literacy…

The Frontline Management Initiative (FMI) provides a framework for competency-based development of frontline managers in Australian enterprises. The FMI's impact on businesses was examined in a national study that included the following activities: focus groups; a national survey of management development and targeted national survey of FMI users;…

In this report, community education training in Scotland was reviewed to identify ways of improving the education and training provided to current and future community educators. Data were gathered from 16 separate sources, including users of community education, community education experts, employers, recent graduates from training, training…

To commemorate 2002 as the centennial year of America's 4-H Movement, the National 4-H Council held a national conversation to identify ways of improving youth development programs. The conversation process included the following activities: 1,577 local conversations that yielded more than 10,000 specific action items; a review of those items at…