This study investigated minority recruitment and growth at two-year community colleges in the Northeast United States. Two major research questions were formulated to guide the investigation: (1) What factors do community college presidents identify as having an impact on recruiting minority administrators and faculty members? and (2) What…

Suggests that when teachers use student self-assessment to learn more about the contexts of student writing, they can respond more effectively. Argues that teachers need to (1) develop and use a variety of context-gathering tools; (2) actively solicit information about the contexts informing the production of student texts; and (3) use this…

Academic confidence cultivated within the context of learning communities may be an important key to student success. This study examined the structural relationships of four constructs on academic performance and persistence for summer bridge learning community (SBLC) and non-SBLC members. Constructs included: 1) student background; 2) academic…

This report is an outcome of a project designed to seek, screen, evaluate, describe, and disseminate highly effective approaches used by two-year colleges to serve students with significant disabilities. "Two-year colleges" included academic institutions, technical colleges, and vocational institutes. From a pool of 18 applicants, the project made…

The provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 for teacher quality direct that all students in U.S. public schools be taught by highly qualified teachers. Although the Pacific Region entities are trying to meet this teacher-quality mandate, most are still far from fulfilling the minimum education requirements for their teachers. By…

Argues that students are more motivated and develop more effective skills if challenged with assignments that ask for the depth of thinking required of academic disciplines and careers. Encourages composition teachers to experiment with assignments that challenge assumptions about first-year students' capabilities. (SG)

In Canada, little attention has been paid to the extent to which job outcomes are the result of the human capital honed in university or of broader social dynamics. Combining the fundamental insights of status attainment and cultural reproduction theories with propositions of the college impact model, the current study examines the effects of…

This report presents highlights of the results for fourth-and eighth-grade students in Puerto Rico for the 2003 and 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in mathematics. The NAEP mathematics assessment was administered to public school students in Puerto Rico for the first time in 2003. Although NAEP had previously administered…

In this article, the author stresses that effective partnerships between businesses and schools define the specific needs of both and succeed through their willingness to make the partnership work. She also states that there must be a mutual desire to improve the quality of education and a commitment of both time and effort from both parties.…

In 2004, the Department of Writing Studies at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island, the U.S., began an assessment of student outcomes for two first-year writing courses (Fall 04 to Fall 05) to evaluate performance on previously established criteria. A study of the students' Portfolio Assessment Sheets concluded that one pervasive…

Reports the view and perceptions of approximately 1,000 Welsh and English students in their final two years of compulsory schooling focusing on self-efficacy, goal orientation and motivation, stress, and interpersonal skills. Finds that most students were positive about their school, their futures, and their perceived control of their life. (CMK)

Suggests that it is easier to invigorate class discussion and stimulate critical thinking if students discover the constructed nature of the canon by first seeing that their notions about a "typical" Poe story have been shaped by an often invisible process of selection and exclusion. (SG)

This paper describes Rhode Island's progress in implementing a comprehensive and coherent approach to education reform from the time of application through June 30, 2011. In particular, this report highlights key accomplishments over the reporting period in the four reform areas: standards and assessments, data systems to support instruction,…

Notes that student writers gain greater insight into the importance of audience by analyzing business documents. Discusses how business writing teachers can help students understand the rhetorical refinements of writing to an audience. Presents an assignment designed to lead writers systematically through an analysis of two advertisements. (SG)

The importance of the Learner's Voice and thus of listening to students' views has been evidenced in various high profile initiatives in the UK. The work presented here is from the JISC Learners' Experiences of E-Learning Phase 2 Learners' Journeys STROLL project. The seven JISC funded projects were set up in 2007 to investigate inter alia the…