A program designed to provide student aid has spun out of control, becoming a cash cow for colleges and universities. The Department of Education has not adequately controlled the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP), according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Originally, traditional lending institutions…

This article reports that Republican and Democratic leaders of the U.S. Senate education committee have joined the debate over the implementation of Reading First, with a call for an investigation into the federal program by the watchdog arm of Congress. The request to the Government Accountability Office follows allegations that federal officials…

This chapter recounts Oregon community colleges' challenges and successes in developing a statewide distance learning consortium.

This article discusses an educational program in Virginia, wherein principals receive special training, additional compensation, and are eligible for a state credential as a "turnaround specialist." When the program was unveiled, some skeptics questioned its focus on individual leaders and quick results. Principals in the program say…

Only two of the most popular school improvement models for elementary schools have "moderately strong" evidence to show that they work, according to a consumer-style guide released last week by a Washington-based research group. The federally financed report by the American Institutes for Research rates 22 of the most widely used…

Using a case example of one of the mental health agencies in Florida, we demonstrate the utility of concept mapping for developing a program logic model and articulating a program theory for program assessment. The results of the concept mapping procedure enabled identification of 100 program services as described in statements by staff. Moreover,…

This study investigated the effects of an Internet-based intervention for insomnia. Participants who met criteria for insomnia (N = 109) were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-behavioral self-help treatment or a waiting list control condition. The 5-week intervention mainly consisted of sleep restriction, stimulus control, and cognitive…

Critics of traditional teacher education programs have suggested that verbal ability along with subject knowledge is sufficient for measuring good teaching. A small group of research studies is called upon to support this contention. This article reviews these studies, analyzes the role of verbal ability in teaching, and presents research…

This article considers the implementation of a long-term strategic approach to combat truancy and other forms of non-attendance. The scheme considered is the Secondary School Three Group (SSTG) scheme which utilises a panel-based approach. Details of how to apply and set up the scheme including the use of the governors' attendance panel,…

The Online Delivery Model Project was funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in follow-up to the Online Academy (Award # HO29K73002). The purpose of the project was to engage teams of educators from nine states in the development of models for implementing online staff development at the state, regional, and national levels. Five…

Community-based organizations (CBOs), typically small and underfunded with transient staff members, are told by funders to care for clients and verify program value. To assist CBOs with evaluations that speak to program effectiveness, many funders wish to expand the evaluation capacity of CBO staff members so that evaluation will occur as long as…

The purpose of the present study was to examine a common practice in some areas of program evaluation, the retrospective pretest, and to present recommendations regarding its use. The authors review literature to emphasize first, that bias is likely in both prospective and retrospective ratings, and second, that under some circumstances,…

Creativity, Action, Service (CAS) forms a core component of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme. CAS frequently includes intergenerational practice involving school students and older adults. This article reports the development of a typology to describe and analyse learning that arises from intergenerational practice in three…

The editors give each of the theorists a chance to respond to questions posed about the context of the situation in relation to their own experience in the field, exploring how the exercise had an impact on their evaluation designs.

The need for character education is apparent in the statistics regarding school violence, absenteeism, drop out rates, and achievement. The directive has been sent out by the government to get the job done. This manuscript examines a number of studies that claim to provide evidence that character education programs work, and others that provide…