One of the central issues in ecology is the underrepresentation of individuals from diverse backgrounds. This underrepresentation starts at the undergraduate level and continues into graduate programs, contributing to a need for more diversity in the discipline. We hypothesize that the interplay of students' identities and contextual factors…

The problem addressed in this study is how a College Success course might reverse the trend of lower graduation rates for students with learning disabilities (LDs) who attend a Colorado institution of higher education. Students with LDs graduate at lower rates than the general population, but it is unclear how a College Success course contributes…

Student employees fulfill an essential role at all academic libraries, but budget and staffing cuts have made student work even more imperative at small, public institutions. This article examines a reference service redesign at Adams State University through the lens of the student circulation employees. Student employee feedback was directly…

This is the third paper on the topic of outcomes-based funding written by Dennis Jones for Complete College America. The first paper, "Performance Funding: From Idea to Action" (ED535356), proposed a set of design and implementation principles to help states develop and implement their own outcomes-based funding models. The second paper,…

This study investigated the prevalence of increasingly popular animal-assisted stress relief programs at higher education institutions across the United States. Although research on animal-assisted programs is increasing, there is still a lack of information documenting implementation of these programs. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to…

The purpose of this study was to describe how states in the REL Central Region (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) evaluate teacher preparation programs and planned changes for evaluation. Publicly available documents were reviewed and interviews were conducted with state education agency representatives…

Thomas Edison State College (TESC) and Colorado State University (CSU) offer significant contrasts in institutional culture, student demographics, faculty and institutional priorities and approaches to distance education course development and delivery. This article offers case studies showing that widely disparate program design and delivery…

Learning communities are a high impact activity that can influence students' likelihood for success. Colorado State University (CSU) created the Key Communities (Key) program, which is open to all students but targets students that have persistently lower graduation and retention rates. The majority of Key students are under-represented…

Leadership mentoring and situated learning are important components in the effective preparation of candidates for school principalships. This study examined this assertion through responses to reflective writing prompts and to interview questions by students enrolled in three different closed cohorts in the same university-based preparation…

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of teacher learning in a cohort-based, master's degree program in curriculum and pedagogy that was intentionally designed to be responsive to teachers' personal needs and preferences. The program aimed to: (1) provide teachers with the confidence to connect what they do in their classrooms to…

The experience described by Kay Hoag, Advocacy Chair of the National Network for Early Language Learning (NNELL), exemplifies the threat of program elimination and/or cutbacks that elementary school foreign language programs across the nation experienced with increased frequency during the 2002-2003 academic year. Reports of these threats…