This book offers a groundbreaking examination of citizenship education programs that serve contemporary youth in schools and communities across the United States. These programs include social studies classes and curricula, school governance, and community-based education efforts. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to exploring the…

On January 23, 2004, President Bush signed the DC School Choice Incentive Act into law. This landmark piece of legislation included $14 million in funding for what would come to be called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP). The OSP is the first federally funded K-12 scholarship program in the country and is designed to provide…

Following an ecological framework, the primary purpose of this study was to examine the adjustment needs of international students within their academic and social communities. Focus group interviews revealed that students are more in need during their initial transition after arrival to the U.S. and that they experience a number of barriers in…

Young children with special needs and their families often experience transitions across multiple environments in the early childhood years. Many transitions are identified as stressful for children and families. In the present study, a series of focus groups involving administrators, practitioners, and family members were held around the United…

This study investigated the unexpected effects of inclusion on the families of students with learning disabilities. A focus group interview was conducted with 13 parents who have children with learning disabilities. The children's ages ranged from 5 to 24 years. Findings are reported regarding participants' comments in response to two guiding…

The authors detail the design, implementation and evaluation of an eConference entitled "Biohorizons," using a presage-process-product model to describe the development of an eLearning community. Biohorizons was a summative learning and assessment task aiming to introduce large classes of first-year Human Biology students to the practices of…

Background/Context: In an era of high stakes accountability, public school districts struggle to improve teaching and learning for all students. As a result, effective professional development approaches for teachers are a high priority. Recently, teachers' learning communities (LCs) have been recommended because successful LCs foster teacher…

This article presents a longitudinal case study of an urban high school as it transitioned from one comprehensive reform model to another over a 10-year period. The study is based on qualitative interview data and quantitative data on student outcomes. Despite evidence of improved student outcomes during this reform period, the school could not…

Late in 2007 New Visions for Public Schools, a New York City reform organization, received a grant from the C.S. Mott Foundation to organize select high schools and community partners into delivery systems that could improve student achievement. New Visions asked Policy Studies Associates, Inc. to provide research support for this effort in the…

This CLIP (College Library Information Packet) offers a compilation of surveys and other methods of inquiry into user satisfaction submitted by college libraries around the United States developed to obtain feedback from the clientele they serve. In April 1995, surveys were mailed to 265 college and small university library directors, and the…

This qualitative study examined the perspectives of people with significant disabilities (N=23) and their family members about their overall employment experiences, outcomes, and expectations. Four focus groups were convened, two groups of people with significant disabilities and two groups of family members. Disabilities represented included…

The College Assessment and Planning Process (CAPP) at New Mexico State University-Grants(NMSU-G) combines in a 2-year cycle the processes of assessment of student academic achievement, review of program effectiveness, strategic planning, and institutional development. Virtually all faculty and staff are involved in the process, which features…

This document reports on a 1998 conference on technical assistance and dissemination attended by representatives from the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Technical Assistance and Dissemination (TA&D) projects, and regional resource centers. The conference was intended to increase knowledge concerning…

This book describes a structure for understanding and managing the process and options for gathering and analyzing data on needs. The three-phase model that forms the basis for the structure grew from both theory and practical experience in many settings. The focus is on assessing the needs of organizations rather than individuals. It is stressed…

The growth of educational teams in collaborative reform initiatives spurs a need for team assessments to assist in promoting functional team environments, productive team work, and member satisfaction. This study applied a multitrait-multimethod framework (D. Campbell and D. Fiske, 1959) to assess team functioning and team leadership. Four case…