The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ("NCLB") presents a rigorous plan for education reform, challenging the nation's schools to increase student achievement and teacher quality. Central to that call for accountability is the requirement that schools take greater care in the selection of curricular and professional development programs and…

The goal of the User-Centered Digital Library Project, conducted by the National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) at WGBH, was to adapt the Teachers' Domain online digital library to enable teachers and students with disabilities to more readily use the resources in science classrooms. NCAM added accessibility features such as captions and audio…

This report presents findings from a two-year investigation of the ways in which Web 2.0 tools and social networking technologies are being used to support teaching and learning in classrooms across the United States. With funding from Intel[R], the Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology (EDC/CCT) interviewed or visited…

There are 21 schools in the Harrison County School District (HCSD), located in southern Mississippi, in the Gulfport/Biloxi metropolitan area. Of those, only Harrison Central 9th Grade (HC9) and Harrison County High School (HCHS) participated in the Cisco 21S Initiative--therefore, this summary will focus on only administrators, teachers,…

Located in southern Mississippi, the Forrest County School District (FCSD) consists of six schools: three K-6 elementary schools, two K-8 elementary-middle schools, and one high school (grades 9-12), all of which have been involved in the Cisco Initiative since its inception. The district employed 16 administrators, 7 technology staff members, and…

Forrest County Agricultural High School (FCAHS) is located in Brooklyn, a small rural town in southern Mississippi and part of the Hattiesburg Metropolitan Statistical Area. Unlike the other schools that participated in the Cisco 21S initiative, FCAHS is not part of a larger school district. Therefore, the unit of analysis throughout this summary…

The Hattiesburg Public School District (HPSD) is a small urban school system located in southern Mississippi. Of the almost 4,500 students enrolled in its nine schools, 92 percent are African American and 90 percent receive free or reduced lunch. Currently, HPSD employs 34 administrators, 375 teachers, and 11 technology specialists. When the 21st…

State health agencies are asked to do a big job. With the advent of an increased focus on bioterrorism preparedness, and the emergence of diseases such as West Nile Virus and SARS, the job is becoming bigger. Yet health agencies still have responsibilities for more traditional concerns, since these problems remain threats to the public. State…

Educational software can be an effective way for teens to enhance their learning skills in out-of-school settings. Many software programs provide subject-specific content and tools to support conceptual learning and skills development. They allow for individual, self-paced learning experiences as well as collaborative projects. In addition,…

The 2002-2003 meetings of the Looking at Student Work project (LASW) represent a new phase of the project featuring new organizing principles and practices. Previous year's sessions were observed and documented by EDC/CCT research staff and by Center for Arts Education (CAE) staff. Because the 2002-2003 version of the project introduced new…

Community studies and reports from clinicians reveal that significant numbers of students on U.S. college campuses suffer from depression and/or anxiety and use alcohol or other drugs (AOD). Counselors in both the drug abuse and mental health fields confirm that students who seek mental health treatment often report symptoms of substance abuse,…

The focus of this project was to address global climate change and, in the same context, analyze how proposed solutions could simultaneously enhance employment opportunities for youth. The outcomes of the project include: (1) greater awareness and engagement of youth in climate change issues, including the need to promote renewable energy…

This report presents findings from the U.S. evaluation of the original or "classic" version of the Intel Teach to the Future program. The data analyzed in this report come primarily from a survey administered in April 2003 to Classic Master and Participant Teachers in the United States. Additional data come from a survey administered to all…

As a way of helping states and districts interested in laptop initiatives, the Northeast and the Islands Regional Technology in Education Consortium (NEIRTEC) has reviewed lessons learned to date from many laptop initiatives around the country and has prepared this guide. Drawn from articles and reports about current and past programs (see…

In the summer of 2000, Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology (CCT) was contracted to evaluate the LIVE @ THE EXPLORATORIUM: Origins project as part of the Exploratorium's three-year funding from the National Science Foundation. Evaluation planning and work began in August of 2000 and continued through December 2003.…