Businesses and higher education leaders are looking for students with the ability to evaluate and analyze information and to use this information to solve real-world problems. These are the information literacy skills students need for the 21st century. However, several recent studies on the ability of college freshmen to handle the rigor of…

This assessment package was designed to facilitate the identification and appraisal of the learning resources and services that are provided to handicapped and other disadvantaged students at two-year colleges. The instrument helps evaluate services available to the following student populations: blind and partially sighted students; deaf and…

Portfolios have received mixed but primarily positive reviews in colleges and universities. The portfolio offers a tool of authentic assessment as well as an opportunity for students to be reflective practitioners. Portfolio implementation and evaluation has become a feature of many university departments. The author describes different approaches…

Designed to help women who are planning their lives and careers, this twenty-one page booklet presents some of the two-year and four-year educational programs offered by the University of Maine at Orono (UMO). The booklet first discusses the demands the labor market of the future will make on employees and points out the importance of developing…

We present our case study of an interdisciplinary team project for students taking either a psychology or computer science (CS) course. The project required psychology and CS students to combine their knowledge and skills to create an online cognitive task. Each interdisciplinary project team included two psychology students who conducted library…

In spring 2003, the Consortium on Chicago School Research, in partnership with Mills College, undertook a short-term, interview-based study of five small schools created under the guidance of the Chicago High School Redesign Imitative (CHSRI) in Chicago Public Schools (CPS). This research resulted in a descriptive data brief, "Chicago High School…

This study investigated the effects of simultaneous written text on the comprehension of spoken English as a foreign language, when the text is presented with the aid of a personal digital assistant (PDA) as a learning tool. Eighty-seven university students majoring in applied foreign languages were randomly assigned to either listening with…

This analysis focuses on school offerings and practices that limit or increase the course work taken by particular groups of students. The National Commission on Excellence in Education has recommended minimal requirements for high school graduation consisting of 4 years of English, 3 years of mathematics, science, and social studies, and one-half…

This study uses benefit-cost analysis to compare three alternative scenarios for implementing the Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) degree in Maryland community colleges. The first policy scenario is that community colleges retain their traditional role in K-12 teacher preparation by providing lower-division transfer courses and programs for…

"Melioration" is borrowing and using an idea from another field not closely associated with your field of expertise. Using the borrowed concept to address a challenge in your field potentially provides new avenues of action and insight. I borrow the concept of boundary objects from science fields and use it to examine assignments in the college…

Research on the role of language in multilingual workplaces, where English is often adopted as a lingua franca (ELF), shows that language practices influence socialization and interpersonal communication, frequently creating issues such as asymmetrical sharing of information, language clusters, or thin communication. Similarly to other…

Forensic science education has evolved as an interdisciplinary science that includes medicine, chemistry, biology, and criminal justice. Therefore, multiple paths can lead to a career in forensic science. A formal education usually requires the student to attend a college or university to obtain a bachelor's or master's degree. In many cases,…

A roundtable session at the 1992 Conference on College Composition and Communication explored the effects of portfolio evaluation on composition students, English faculty, and departmental administrators at two- and four-year campuses of the University of Alaska Southeast. Faculty from both four-year and two-year campuses found that portfolio…

This dissertation examined the part athletics and resiliency played in degree completion of African American males. Specifically, it investigated three at-risk African American males and the dynamics of athletic participation and resiliency in their degree completion. In view of the fact that many African American students begin their higher…

The National Council for Research and Planning (NCRP) serves institutional research and planning professionals in two-year, postsecondary educational institutions, and others with a special interest in community college research. This report details each of its ten goals for 1997-98 and relates its current progress in reaching these goals. Goal…