On January 10, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger released his proposed budget for the 2008-09 fiscal year. State revenues for the 18 months covering the last half of 2007-08 and 2008-09 are projected to be nearly $16 billion below planned expenditures. The budget seeks to close this shortfall by cutting 2008-09 funding for most programs by 10%…

A model developed by the Technical Assistance Customizer (TAC) Project offers state education agencies and other organizations an approach to assist them with converting national findings and resources to state-specific materials in a timely and cost-effective manner. Moreover, the approach recognizes the importance of collaboration with and the…

Presently, research is questioning the value of homework, especially at the elementary level. One reason homework is considered important is that it allows for the opportunity to practice and reinforce skills. Currently, elementary students in the United States are assigned homework in mathematics three or more times a week. Since homework…

The University of California at Davis School of Medicine offers a prematriculation program to nontraditional students. As part of the program, students take a 7-day course on the gross anatomy of the upper limb that concludes with a written examination and a practical examination based on prosections. Here, the performance of students who took the…

Fifth grade students with learning disabilities receive a ten-week unit on learning styles and the special education process as part of their transition to the middle school. Developed by a learning center teacher and guidance counselor, the program is derived from the literature on self-determination and from the work of Mel Levine. The…

These are strange times for teacher education in a democratic society because globalization dominates economic, political, and technological interfaces among social institutions, nation-states, and the world. These are also dangerous times for teacher education in a democratic society because the expansion of neoliberalism as form of contemporary…

Fourteen of the startup charter schools in the State of Hawai'i are Hawaiian-focused, providing an education grounded in culturally relevant content and context. This study centers on outcomes in these Hawaiian-focused charter schools, which have demonstrated their value to the community, serving the educational needs of an increasing number of…

The following experiment describes an easy experiment for children 11-12 years old, performed during spring in a compulsory school near Karlstad, Sweden. Four different ripe fruits were placed under flowering plants of Impatiens New Guinea (Impatiens hawkeri) for four days on a table and with plastic bags around both plants and fruits. For one of…

The Incredible Years parent training programme is a research-based therapy which aims to help families improve the behaviour of children with conduct difficulties in the early years, while the behaviour is malleable (Webster-Stratton & Reid, 2003). The short-term goals of the programme are to reduce conduct problems in children by increasing…

This article argues that Catholic universities should vigorously engage international law for at least three reasons. First, international law is an indispensible dialogue partner for Catholic Social Teaching (CST). Since CST belongs in Catholic higher education, so too does international law. Second, in numerous ways and on a global scale,…

School-community partnerships make a difference in student achievement. Synthesizing 35 years of research to provide insight into "what works in schools," Robert Marzano (2003) concluded that community involvement is a critical factor. Though community involvement takes many forms, generally organizations such as libraries, museums, parks, zoos,…

Some so-called "evidence-based" interventions are narrow methods which are justified by some quantitative research. This limited focus ignores broader qualitative studies showing that interpersonal relationships wield more impact than technique. Even a cursory review of youth-serving organizations demonstrates that the overwhelming majority of…

This study focuses on the profiles of students of social work and examines whether different profiles of students can be identified in various social work programs in Israel's institutions of higher education (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Haifa University, Tel Aviv University and the College of Judea and Samaria). The article discusses the…

School districts, individual schools, and education policies all contribute to student achievement. But it can be argued that the most important contributing factor is the quality of the teacher in the classroom. Evaluating teacher quality is complicated, yet it has become even more important with the testing and assessment focus of No Child Left…

Each year in the United States, millions of students experience suspension from public schools (Mendez & Knoff, 2003). Community service programs provide one means to address the school suspension problem. These initiatives are characterized by volunteer service placements within community nonprofit organizations for skill and personal…