This study was conducted to determine how library users in California say library use helps them. While most library effectiveness studies infer effectiveness by looking at the movement of materials or reports of user satisfaction, this study proceeds from the assumption that libraries need to know how library use helps in user terms. The study…

The impacts of technology upon traditional library resources are sometimes unexpected. The library at California's University of the Pacific discovered that usage of print materials was dwindling, even though the addition of a 50-station "Information Commons" had bolstered overall library use. At first it was anticipated that the…

In 1991-92, a project was undertaken at Napa Valley College to update the college's 1990 Comparative Study of Vocational Nursing Curriculum and Employer Requirements, to develop a model articulation program for licensed nurses pursuing associate degrees, and to produce a guide for recruiting and retaining underrepresented groups in vocational…

From September 1989 to August 1992, 151 intern-teachers participated in an alternative credential program to recruit, train, and support special education teachers in rural northeast California. Directed by California State University, Chico, in collaboration with school districts in its service area, the 2-year program was designed to alleviate…

Reports a study of on-the-job special education trainees' perceptions regarding job satisfactions and challenges, congruence between expectations and reality of working conditions, and predicted commitment to special education. Results indicated 48 percent would eventually leave special education. (SM)

The California Community Colleges' (CCC) Flexible Calendar Program (FCP) allows districts to allocate up to 15 instructional days from the 175-day academic calendar to engage in staff, student, and instructional improvement activities. The CCC Board of Governors' Task Force on Flexible Calendar, drawing from three sources (i.e., program growth…

In 1990, the California Community Colleges Assembly Bill 1725 (AB 1725) Accountability Task Force created an accountability model to provide information which would facilitate the assessment of community colleges' educational and fiscal effectiveness. The model contains five major components and indicators of effectiveness for each: (1) student…

This report uses data from the California Work and Health Survey (a random sample of 2,310 California adults), conducted in July 1996, to compare labor force status, employment history, and experience of work for persons with and without disabilities. Results found: (1) the largest difference in the employment experience of persons with and…

A "confidential employee" is defined by California law as "any employee who, in the regular course of his duties, has access to or possesses information relating to his employer's employer-employee relations." Under the auspices of the Association of California Community College Administrators, a four-part study of confidential…

Followup questionnaires were sent to 372 students who had graduated from liberal arts and science programs at Southwestern College in 1973, in order to determine their status in relation to education and employment, to rate their experience at Southwestern and at their current institutions as to instruction, counseling, facilities, materials,…

Structural equation modeling was used to assess the plausibility of a conceptual model specifying hypothesized linkages among perceptions of characteristics of standards-based evaluation, work environment mediators, and career satisfaction and other outcomes. Four comprehensive high schools located in two neighboring counties in southern…

The charter-schools movement provides the opportunity to observe whether granting schools freedom from most state regulations actually produces more freedom for school administrators and teachers, and whether this autonomy produces other distinctive outcomes. This report summarizes findings of Southwest Regional Laboratory's (SWRL's) statewide…

Interviews with 77 California teachers who either continued teaching bilingual education, switched to English immersion, or continued teaching English immersion sought their perspectives on impacts of Proposition 227 to the teaching profession, instructional practices, students, school culture, and teacher relationships. Implementation of…

HERI Faculty Surveys administered in Fall 1998 and Spring 2005 at California State University-Fresno were analyzed to assess change in faculty satisfaction, stress, and perceived importance of University priorities by academic rank, gender, and race/ethnicity. Each survey sample was weighted to match its population then analyzed separately using…

This article highlights the California Cultures Project as a case study examining the architecture and framework required to support the deployment of digital objects as virtual collections at the California Digital Library. Chronologically arranged, it describes the Online Archive of California (OAC) Working Group's functional requirements for…