Communities of Practice offer state agency personnel a promising approach for engaging stakeholder groups in collaboratively solving complex and, often, persistent problems in special education. Communities of Practice can help state agency personnel drive strategy, solve problems, promote the spread of best practices, develop members'…

University-based teacher education programs and all of their components, including the content disciplines such as mathematics and science, are undergoing an unprecedented degree of scrutiny and challenge. Today, the entire concept of university-based teacher preparation is being questioned, mostly by critics outside the academy, and it is no…

Federal Student Aid's core mission is to ensure that all eligible Americans benefit from federal financial assistance--grants, loans and work-study programs--for education beyond high school. The programs administered comprise the nation's largest source of student aid: during the 2007-08 school year alone, approximately $83 billion in new aid was…

This brief publication provides bullet points of what education authorities are doing well and how they can do better in the following areas: (1) Planning for implementation; (2) Transition arrangements; (3) Meeting additional support needs; (4) Resolving disagreements; (5) Coordinated support plans; and (6) Working with children and young…

The article discusses theoretical preconditions of added value of internationalized studies for students' knowledge and skills development in the area of professional training within the system of higher education. The premise is formulated that the value and quality of academic exchange is possible to assess grounding on the research into…

This handbook gives those who monitor food service sites a work knowledge of their duties and responsibilities as representatives of sponsors in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP). The organizational structure of the SFSP and the training of monitors are reviewed. The responsibilities of visiting sites and checking site operations are…

Although the author offers no handy formula to determine program effectiveness, she does present an extensive list of statements that can help the school administrator plan program improvement with his music teachers. (Editor)

This report addresses the issue of whether Federal regulations and certain state and local office practices and procedures may discourage or prevent eligible persons from participating in the Food Stamp Program. The report focuses on only those procedures and practices that affect households once they have contacted the local food stamp office for…

This manual provides regulations to assist local education agencies in Georgia in planning, designing and implementing programs of compensatory education for Title I eligible children. The areas considered under program planning include: the responsibilities of local educational agencies, allocation and reallocation of funds, accounting of fiscal…

A plan has been initiated in Georgia to ensure that project directors and evaluators are cognizant of and organized to meet criteria specified in the Identification, Validation, and Dissemination (IVD) guidelines. The evaluation/validation process involves eight steps: (1) evaluator training, (2) proposal screening, (3) critique of evaluation…

Described is a procedure (Audit Dress Rehearsal) used in a special education program audit consultation service which included a practice audit designed to lower anxiety and raise awareness of concern for program success. The introduction includes sections dealing with evaluation and audit personnel, planning and implementing an audit, and stages…

The purpose of this practicum was to improve the reading program at a San Antonio elementary school in grades one through three and to provide a model for expansion to grades four and five and to other elementary schools in the area. The Texas Right to Read format was used as a guide to implementing the program. This document introduces the…

A description and an evaluation of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title I-funded programs for the state of Pennsylvania are contained in this document. It is in two parts. Part I is the evaluation report and presents data on participants and on activities and services. Part II is the analysis of the evaluation report. Results are…

This interim evaluation report presents an overview of Dade County (Florida) systems programs--instructional assessment and management structures which provide for the acquisition of reading and mathematics skills by individual students. A survey of the programs reveals that, as of 1974, 1660 installations had accommodated approximately 50,000…

The article describes the implementation and results of a developmentally sequenced language program for 21 severely, profoundly, and multihandicapped students (mean CA=10 years, mean MA=20 months). (SBH)