This essay places service-learning within the liberal arts tradition of empowering others to help themselves. Such a contextualization departs from visions of the student as consumer or customer and education as a means to gain economic advantage in a competitive market. Attention then turns to how even well-intentioned service-learning projects…

In 1988 a paper described "Start-Up Strategies for Speaking and Listening across Disciplines," with special reference to eight institutions which at that time had relatively freshly-minted programs in speaking across the curriculum (Weiss). Eight strategies for starting such programs were delineated and remain viable today, but the…

Implementation of school reform is a much-studied and often-discussed topic among researchers and educators alike. To hear what researchers have to say about this issue, questions were put to the Network of Researchers about what trends and patterns they see in schools implementing comprehensive school reform. Researchers agree that it is…

This monograph is intended as a guide to support self-evaluation of truancy reduction and prevention programs by those involved in their ongoing operations. It is one of four in a series addressing various aspects of truancy, was published by the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University with support from the South Carolina…

Today, school systems face the challenge of developing the next generation of school leaders. This means more than simply hiring promising new leaders--it requires developing an effective mentoring program. True leadership mentoring must be carefully crafted with highly educated mentors and prepared proteges. But what are the elements of a quality…

As a direct result of the passage of the America Reads Challenge Act in 1997, Mt. Mercy College, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, has developed a reading tutor program. The program includes a college credit course and on-site visits by college faculty supervising student tutors. This article includes the rationale for development of a credit course for reading…

Designed to celebrate family/interprofessional collaborative partnerships, this publication describes high-quality examples of how families and professionals at the family, community, state, and national levels have worked together to create programs and practices that are family-friendly and responsive to what families have said they want and…

This report reviews the proposal by the California State University (CSU) to establish a 23rd campus to be know as California State University, Channel Islands. The proposed institution will be a full-service campus with a lower division, upper division, and graduate educational services, located in a former state hospital in Ventura County. The…

The Reading First initiative is a central part of the federal "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001. Reading First's primary goal is to improve reading instruction and student performance in kindergarten through grade 3. By March 2003 only half of the 50 state plans had been approved for funding. Approved states included seven Southern…

This report presents, in outline form, an overview of the purpose and activities of the Partnership Opportunities Subcommittee of the Task Force for Enhancing Access for African American Males of the University System of Georgia. The Subcommittee is charged with identifying a wide array of educational, civic, and business organizations to serve as…

This report, written in French, provides an evaluation of a bilingual French and German experiment within the framework of compulsory schooling in Sierre, a community in Valais, Switzerland. The program began began in the 1994-1995 school year. The models examined are an early partial immersion kindergarten program (model I) and a middle, partial…

This guide explains the results and other information contained in the "Test Item Analysis Report," the "Test Item Report Summary," the "School Report," and the "District Report" for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests of spring 2002.The report contains these sections: (1)…

This report shares with educators and the public all of the test items on which spring 2002 student results from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) are based. The release of these items provides information on the kinds of knowledge and skills students are expected to demonstrate on the MCAS tests. Local educators are…

For almost 20 years, the U.S. Department of Education has invited schools to seek the Blue Ribbon School Award. A large number of Catholic schools have received this award. For this publication, the Department of Elementary Schools Executive Committee requested principals of awarded schools to write a short article on an exemplary school program…

The material in this Technical Assistance Packet is intended to help mentoring programs monitor individual matches and develop a larger picture that provides a composite view of the strengths and shortcomings of all their matches. The packet contains the Youth Survey, a tool to monitor the quality of individual mentoring relationships, determine…