Providing technical support to a large, geographically diverse population is a daunting task. Information technology (IT) organizations must contribute to the teaching and learning mission, while supporting complex and visible administrative operations. All universities and colleges face unprecedented challenges in providing effective computing…

This videotape and accompanying workbook are intended to help paraprofessional school personnel learn necessary skills to assist in classroom instruction. The workbook provides supplementary information and each section includes suggested activities for putting knowledge and skills into practice and suggestions for reflection. Individual sections…

This report on Idaho's grant programs for reading improvement pinpoints two programs, the General Reading Improvement Program and the Reading Improvement with Phonics Program. The report states that the first program makes funds available to support kindergarten through sixth grade "reading recovery" or other locally developed methods…

This facilitator's manual is part of a curriculum to help special educators teach paraprofessionals to support individual students with disabilities effectively, especially students with moderate to severe disabilities who require individualized support. Special aspects of the curriculum include its site-based and job embedded approach as well as…

The paper outlines a number of processes that have been implemented by Learning Services at Deakin University (Geelong, Australia) to gain significant and sustained cultural change among staff in a blended organization, comprising the university library service, the curriculum design and development functions and those of academic staff…

The long-term effects of crisis and tragedy can be improved significantly by immediate intervention and emergency mental health services. Providing crisis intervention in rural schools poses challenges related to lack of financial resources, community resources, and trained personnel; isolation of rural schools; and long distances between school…

Financial support for implementing technology in the public schools has come from a wide spectrum of sources. How much is being spent, where the funds come from, and whether funding will be sustained ultimately determine the degree to which students will be participants in an increasingly technology-driven society. This edition highlights the pros…

This serial issue contains 12 articles on the theme of "Professional Development," specifically about how teachers in the Bread Loaf Rural Teacher Network (BLRTN) are fostering their own and each other's development as teachers. The BLRTN consists of approximately 260 rural teachers in Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky,…

This paper reports on the use of focus groups at Oakton Community College (Illinois) to connect with classified staff and to get their feedback on key issues. A total of four single-session focus groups, three with classified staff (employees with varying levels of academic preparation and current responsibilities) and one with…

This paper examines the experiences of seven new faculty at a charter school of education at California State University Los Angeles. The seven new professors in the study were asked to engage in ethnographic interviews that described and categorized their experiences, and contrasted them with other events. Interview questions focused on:…

This paper provides a summary of four projects currently funded through Australia's National Center for Vocational Education Research (NCVER), including what they propose to achieve and their preliminary findings to date. After an introduction, an overview of preliminary findings from the four projects is presented. The following barriers to…

To examine how the school districts profiled in "Gaining the Arts Advantage: Lessons from School Districts That Value Arts Education" are responding to the demands of how to provide high quality public education to all students throughout the country and whether their communities continue to support arts education, the Arts Education Partnership…

Dealing with the impact of crisis on school children and staff is not the primary mission of schools. Therefore, many schools remain unprepared to respond to a crisis affecting students and staff. Too often they respond to each successive crisis in a reflexive manner with little preplanned coordination or structure. This workshop provides an…

This staff development guide with accompanying videotape is designed to assist early years staff using "A Curriculum Framework for Children 3 to 5" in Scotland to assess children's progress. The program is comprised of activities to stimulate discussion among colleagues, affirm existing good practice, give time for reflection, and…

The 11 chapters in this book are intended to raise awareness of the wealth of expertise the prison education sector has to offer other adult educators. "Policy Development and Cultural Issues in Australian Prison Education" (Bob Semmens) details the current situation, with a major focus on recent developments in Victoria. "Policy, Praxis, and…