This report analyzes the first year of the Federal Alternative Financing Program (AFP), a program designed to help individuals with disabilities who need to purchase assistive technology (AT) find a way to pay for the equipment. The program receives funding under Title III of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 and provides low-cost financing for…

The Greater Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) Literacy Council (GPLC) is a volunteer-based literacy council that provides adult basic and literacy education services to the area's citizens. The GPLC conducted an action research project to determine whether adding monthly meetings for professional teaching staff and providing opportunities for interaction…

High school graduates from a self-selected group of school districts in Texas were surveyed early in the year after graduation regarding the extent to which they were engaged in activities endorsed by the state's School-to-Careers (STC) initiative during their senior year in high school. Since the STC initiative had only begun during these…

Connecticut's Jobs First program, which began operating in January 1996, combines a time limit on welfare receipt with generous financial work incentives and requires recipients to participate in employment-related services targeted toward rapid job placement. The impacts of the Jobs First program were examined by following several thousand…

San Francisco Works (SFWorks) is a collaborative welfare-to-work project conducted by a coalition of large San Francisco-area employers, the city's Chamber of Commerce, and the United Way of the Bay Area. The project was piloted beginning in March 1998 by contracting with five community-based organizations (CBOs) to provide a comprehensive range…

This action research project evaluated the effectiveness of a program to enhance students' social skills with peers. The targeted population was comprised of elementary and junior high school students in an economically diverse, predominantly blue collar community in central Illinois. The problem of inability to problem solve, listen actively,…

This book is designed to assist evaluators of nonformal education (NFE) and adult education programs in their continuing professional education and in the task of improving their capacities for genuinely formative, informative, and participatory assessment of educational practice. Fourteen chapters are organized into five sections. Section 1…

The General Accounting Office (GAO) examined worksite-based activities currently in place to help recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) develop the skills required for successful transition to unsubsidized employment. Data were collected from the following sources: (1) data reported by states to the Department of Health and…

This report examines implementation and impacts of Ramsey County's Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), a "work first" program. Chapter 1 lists key findings, provides an overview of the Ramsey County variant (MFIP-R) evaluation, and policy relevance of MFIP-R. Chapter 2 describes key features of MFIP-R and compares them with…

Project STRIDE was conducted at Keys Community Center in Phoenix, Arizona, to create job linkages and prepare local people for jobs in distressed areas through relationships among residents, employers, and service providers. The project's components include a community jobs team, group employability training, goal-setting, computer training, job…

This second edition provides principals, teachers, and parents with new insight into early childhood education. Research underscores the importance of increasing emphasis on literacy and language acquisition, using assessment tools effectively, expanding community linkages, meeting the needs of a diverse student body, balancing academic and…

Project Great Start is designed to provide non-, limited-, and near-native English proficient students with improved, intensified, and increased learning opportunities for accelerated English acquisition and significant academic achievement. It focuses on three groups: students, parents, and school staff. Students and parents benefit from separate…

Two adaptations of Success for All, a comprehensive instructional reform program for elementary schools, have been used with students acquiring English as a second language. One is a Spanish bilingual version called "Exito para Todos," in which students are taught to read in Spanish and then transitioned to English reading, usually in…

This report presents findings about emerging approaches to enhance the well-being of young children and families in the context of welfare reform. Information on programs and initiatives was obtained from nomination forms sent to over 300 key informants, including child care officials, Head Start collaboration directors, governors' early childhood…

The first HM Inspector of Schools was appointed in 1840 and inspectors have made significant contributions to Scottish education since that date. An important recent milestone in the development of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education in Scotland (HMIE) was its establishment on 1 April 2001 as an Executive Agency of the Scottish Ministers under…