Describes efforts by the University of Maryland to encourage and support Black graduate students in pursuing graduate degrees in mathematics. (EV)

Describes work of Father Javier de Nicolo, who has worked for 20 years with street children in Bogota, Colombia. Lists and discusses de Nicolo's principles for working with and educating street children, which are based on acceptance and respect. Describes two successful programs that have helped street children stabilize their lives and helped…

Describes the University of Dayton's Personalized Virtual Room. This Web interface to a virtual space that looks and feels like a campus residence was designed to encourage communication and connectivity among first-year students before they arrive on campus. Discusses the initiative's goals and successes, student reaction, and lessons learned.…

Describes the development of the University of South Florida as a confident, research-oriented university with strong community roots and delineates some of the conditions needed to create such a sense of identity. (EV)

Describes how the University of Wisconsin, Parkside is becoming an engaged university. Discusses regional context, steps taken toward change, linkage between committed leadership and institutionalization of change, and resulting institutional structures. Suggests that key to the process was a working team that visited every department to uncover…

Describes Dalhousie University's new program to prepare students for work while enhancing undergraduate education. The overall purpose of the Dalhousie Career Portfolio program is to help students understand the value and transferability of their learning, knowledge, and skills to their personal and career development. Evaluation revealed a…

As campuses across the country explore ways to strengthen interdisciplinary studies and involve undergraduates in research, questions emerge about how best to integrate existing course offerings and majors, develop curricular rigor and agility, and strengthen administrative coordination. This article discusses two successful initiatives to…

Less than two years ago, a school district in west Texas initiated a program called Volunteer Initiative Program (VIP) to increase community and parent involvement in grades kindergarten through twelve. Through VIP, the district encouraged district teachers and staff to increase their efforts to involve parents in their schools. Carlos Valdez and…

In this paper, we describe the Mobile-IT Education (MIT.EDU) system, which demonstrates the potential of using a distributed mobile device architecture for rapid prototyping of wireless mobile multi-user applications for use in classroom settings. MIT.EDU is a stable, accessible system that combines inexpensive, commodity hardware, a flexible…

At the authors' school, as in many places, she struggles with making science a meaningful part of her students' lives. The teachers are working under state mandates to prepare students for reading and mathematics tests in third, fourth, and fifth grades. Often, this relegates science and social studies to a distant back burner. In an effort to…

In this column, the author discusses the four key questions related to the National LambdaRail (NLR) networking technology. NLR uses Dense Wave Division Multiplexing (DWDM) to enable multiple networks to coexist on a national fiber footprint, and is owned and operated not by carriers, but by the research and education community. The NLR Board…

An annual project involving students and faculty in a collaborative, 6-month planning process that culminates in a half-day program with both didactic and experiential components is presented as a model for creating powerful learning experiences external to the classroom. This article examines the CACREP (The 2001 Standards of the Council for…

Founded in 1983, the Center for Gifted at National-Louis University in Evanston, Illinois "www.thecenterforgifted.com/" offers outside-of-school classes for bright children. Through its 15 programs in 10 Chicago suburbs, the Center now serves more than 3000 talented young people in pre-kindergarten through 10th grades. Although not…

The purpose of this report is to provide an annual overview of activities funded under the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" ("IDEA"), Part D (National Activities to Improve Education of Children with Disabilities), subparts 2 and 3 (P.L. 108-446). "IDEA", Part D, includes programs that support…

The three case studies featured in this publication need to be viewed in conjunction with the recent National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) report: "A New Social Capital Paradigm for Adult Literacy: Partnerships, Policy and Pedagogy" (Balatti, Black & Falk 2009). The case studies form an important research phase of…