This book is designed for college faculty, staff, and administrators who train and supervise teaching assistants (TAs). It presents a collection of papers with information on designing, implementing, and improving TA training programs. Section 1, "The Training and Preparation of Graduate Teaching Assistants," includes (1) "Conceptualizing and…

This study addressed assessing the efficacy and outcomes of a U.S. Department of Agriculture Nutrition Education Training (NET) project designed to increase awareness of health risk and wellness factors for grade 9 students. Although this paper reprises results from a survey of 125 ninth graders about the NET curriculum, the focus of this part of…

The Upward Bound program seeks to promote high school completion and college attendance of high school students who come from low-income families or have parents who did not complete college. Specifically, Upward Bound projects provide academic instruction, career planning, and college application services, during the regular school year and…

This guide is designed to help mentor teachers develop effective mentoring strategies, discussing how to provide direct assistance, demonstration teaching, observation, and feedback, informal contact, and role modeling. It offers monthly listings of activities designed to promote interaction between mentors and proteges that correspond to…

The evaluator was contracted to determine whether the online or face-to-face course components met course participants' needs and increased their understanding and knowledge of policy development processes, and to determine the efficiency and effectiveness of delivery strategies. In addition, the course evaluator was asked to look at the…

On the weekend of February 3-6, the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois hosted the 2005 National Conference of Black Physics Students, marking the 19th consecutive year that the Conference has provided African American physics students with the unique opportunity to meet and network with counterparts from all across…

In this issue of Forum Focus, we focus on what researchers and policy makers are doing to help governments take stock of their efforts to make sure that every young person is "Ready by 21"--ready for work, ready for college, ready for life. "Research Update" reviews efforts to establish a coherent set of youth development…

A loosely connected set of providers, clients, sponsors, and intermediaries make up the local markets referred to as the out-of-school-time (OST) field. This field and the actors in it have been evolving in response to shifts in the economy, the growing demand for services associated with increased numbers of working mothers in the labor force,…

University-based community college leadership programs are meeting not only student needs but also the needs within their states. This report from the American Association of Community Colleges' (AACC's) Leading Forward initiative highlights strategies and practices of six new programs, formed since 2000, that are breaking tradition through their…

The purpose of this study was to compare the achievement of students in 14 Pascagoula schools and 9 Biloxi schools implementing School Renaissance (SR) to that of students in matched control schools. The achievement measures to be examined were from the 2004 administration of the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT) for Reading, Language Arts, and…

The Alberta Initiative for School Improvement (AISI) was developed through a collaborative partnership in 1999 and first implemented in all Alberta school authorities in the 2000/2001 school year. The goal of this program is to improve student learning and performance by fostering initiatives that reflect the unique needs and circumstances of each…

In June of 1998, Proposition 227 was passed by 61 percent of the California electorate. Intended to change how the state's English learners (ELs) are instructed, Proposition 227 required that ELs be taught "overwhelmingly in English" through sheltered/structured English immersion (SEI) programs during a transition period and then…

Schools that become part of the "Making Middle Grades Work" network are expected to use the middle grades comprehensive improvement framework to show progress in changing school and classroom practices in ways that advance student achievement. True school reform is not a quick process. It is a continuous effort to make purposeful and planned…

This report reviews 75 high schools in the "High Schools that Work" (HSTW) network that made statistically significant gains in at least two of three areas reading, mathematics and science--between 2002 and 2004 on the "HSTW" Assessments. In these schools, all groups of students improved achievement--regardless of race, ethnicity or socioeconomic…

Talents Unlimited (TU) is a program that enhances students' creative and critical thinking skills within the framework of the regular classroom curriculum. Based on Calvin Taylor's theory of multiple talents and intellectual abilities, this program develops improved thinking in specific talent processes, including Productive Thinking,…