Maine is blessed with universities that have records of significant achievement. The seven campuses of the University of Maine System (UMS) together educated over 23,000 students (full-time equivalent) during the past year. But for good reason, in recent years public confidence in higher education throughout the nation has fallen. Half of the…

The performance types, concerns, policy values, and models of excellence implied in higher education performance reporting indicators are identified, and the use of performance measures by two- and four-year campuses are compared. (EV)

This document addresses physics programs in community college in 2001-2002. The data was gathered from a list of 1,785 community colleges. A survey was mailed to the various campuses as well as sent via email yielding to a 78% response rate. Physics programs in community colleges were often so small that 43% of departments that offered physics had…

Discusses an explicit method for applying deconstruction--a philosophical approach to literary criticism originated by Derrida--in the introductory literature course and shows how to maintain the system's challenging and intellectual rigor, while avoiding much of its potentially offputting terminology and its tendency toward subjective word play.…

A two-year qualitative study of mathematics and English teachers in two urban comprehensive high schools investigated how teacher community serves as resource for teacher development and school reform. A school engaged in whole-school reform sustained high teacher commitment and school-level community by constituting professional community…

Describes a project to improve the science curricula and the science teaching skills of instructors in Houston-area two-year colleges in such a way that the program can be replicated in other locations. Two-year college faculty members were teamed with faculty from universities. (PR)

Students enrolled in the Optometry program at the University of Manchester are required to take a functional anatomy course during the first year of their studies. Low mean scores in the written examination of this unit for the past two academic years energized staff to rethink the teaching format. Interactive sessions lasting 20 minutes each were…

The purpose of this study is to explore the factors and mechanisms by which a faculty member chooses to move into an administrative position in higher education, and to examine their early experiences in associate dean positions. As faculty move into administrative positions they will likely experience a significant shift in their job duties and…

Background: There has been rapid growth in value-added assessment of teachers to meet the widely supported policy goal of identifying the most effective and the most ineffective teachers in a school system. The former group is to be rewarded while the latter group is to be helped or fired for their poor performance. But, value-added approaches to…

Outlines several ways community colleges and journalists can forge an alliance to improve their perceived roles in the community. States that a partnership can be built by doing the following: developing an understanding of the public journalism movement and its potential impact on education coverage, and exploiting the qualities that distinguish…

In 2011, South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed into law the South Carolina Higher Education Efficiency and Administrative Policies Act, maintaining the transparency and accountability that lead to increased academic quality and affordability at colleges and universities. It is in this context that ACTA (American Council of Trustees and…

Business educators have long been prepared for service in a wide range of settings; however, these settings have been concentrated in secondary education, teaching business subjects at the 7-12 levels with the emphasis on high school programs. Thus, for so many of those in the field of business education, their career path was quite simple: earn a…

This report uses the phrase, "College Readiness" to refer in a general sense to the level of preparation a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed--without remediation--in a credit-bearing course at a two-year or four-year institution, trade school, or technical school. Increasingly, however, college readiness also means "workplace"…

A national commission formed to review the future of the 12th grade National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has recommended that the nation's primary barometer of student performance should expand dramatically to provide mandatory state results on the achievement of 12th graders and to measure their readiness for college, employment,…

Describes the current teacher credentialing situation in California, the community college Teacher and Reading Development Partnership (TRDP) program, and six California community college programs dedicated to the elimination of an acute teacher shortage. Reports that, by targeting the state's community colleges as the future educational outlets…