As the sector's gatekeepers, charter school authorizers are responsible for ensuring that schools in their purview set students up for success. To that end, they provide various forms of scrutiny and technical assistance, decide whether existing schools' charters should be renewed, and--perhaps most important--set the bar for the approval of new…

The process of identifying and selecting peers for a college or university is one of this volume's definitions for "benchmarking": "a strategic and structured approach whereby an organization compares aspects of its processes and/or outcomes to those of another organization or set of organizations to identify opportunities for…

No institution relishes reliving the dark moments of its history, but addressing legacies of discrimination can strengthen campus inclusivity, embody shared values, and communicate how and why the institution has evolved over time. Colleges and universities with complex histories can benefit by exploring that history. No matter how a project…

This article reports the findings of an evaluation of the faculty development component of the Faculty for the Engaged Campus initiative. For this component, the Community-Engaged Scholarship Faculty Development Charrette was attended by 20 university teams from across the United States, and six teams subsequently received 2 years of funding and…

Community colleges are complex organizations and assessing their performance, though important, is difficult. Compared to four-year colleges and universities, community colleges serve a more diverse population and provide a wider variety of educational programs that include continuing education and technical training for adults, and diplomas,…

The purpose of this research is to employ a theoretical perspective to better understand and recognize the role of institutional culture within the civic responsibility movement in higher education. A three-part conceptual framework (Swidler, 1986) is used to investigate the influence of culture on civic responsibility at two research…

The University of North Carolina presents the forty-first annual "Statistical Abstract of Higher Education in North Carolina." This abstract covers the breadth of higher education activities in the State in their quantitative aspect, from simple counts of enrollment and degrees conferred to complex analyses of the flow of student…

The University of North Carolina presents the thirty-ninth annual "Statistical Abstract of Higher Education in North Carolinaa." This abstract covers the breadth of higher education activities in the State in their quantitative aspect, from simple counts of enrollment and degrees conferred to complex analyses of the flow of student…

The lack of consensus among researchers in defining the focal construct of rurality has led to contradictory conclusions of whether or not a rural-urban performance gap exists in higher education. Compounding this problem are the changing definitions of rural and urban, even among governmental agencies. Thus, this study used two different…

This is a study of educational accountability at Richmond Technical Institute. The primary purpose of this study was to devise a systematic method in which the institute could become more accountable, both externally to Richmond County and internally to its students. The paper examines the problems of developing an accountability model. In…

In 2005, the National Center for Learning Disabilities (NCLD) helped more children, more parents and more educators than ever before. Through their programs, information services, and policy initiatives, they raised awareness, mobilized advocates, and took action to help ensure that learning disabilities are identified and addressed early and…

A research and development project was conducted to design a system for collecting and processing manpower information at a local level. Three systems for use by local institutions to obtain information needed for long-range planning were developed--an annual survey of high school student aspirations, a follow-up survey of students who leave an…

Compares 3 research strategies used over the past 25 years involving cooperation among Duke University, North Carolina State University, and the North Carolina Department of Community Colleges, i.e., traditional researcher-dominated strategy, researcher-dominated with limited client involvement, and researcher-client collaborative strategy.…

A followup study was conducted by Wilkes Community College of its attrition population. The purposes were to: (1) determine factors contributing to student withdrawal; (2) create a profile of conditions concerning students who withdrew; and (3) ascertain what students did during the first quarter after leaving. One hundred questionnaires,…

A survey was conducted among alumni of Asheville-Bancombe Technical Institute. Questionnaires were mailed to approximately 941 alumni, and 691 or 73 percent were returned. Questions dealt with: (1) personal background information; (2) graduates' experiences with employment, military service, and post-two-year college work; (3) graduates'…