In "America's Hidden Economic Engines," editors Robert B. Schwartz and Rachel Lipson spotlight community and technical colleges as institutions uniquely equipped to foster more equitable economic growth across America's regions. As Schwartz and Lipson show, these colleges are the best-placed institutions to reverse the decades-long rise…

The entry into kindergarten is a key transition children experience and has lasting consequences for their academic development. In light of this, many schools have implemented transition practices designed to foster positive development for children during this time. This study uses qualitative interview data to examine the policies, practices,…

Though scholars agree that professional development (PD) is a key mechanism for implementing education policies that call for teacher change, and that PD generally needs to be content-focused, active, collaborative, coherent, and sustained, the application of this framework has yielded mixed results. In this qualitative study, we employed…

The College Access Challenge Grant (CACG) statutory language requires states receiving the funds to attempt to coordinate grant activities with other stakeholders in the state working to increase postsecondary access and success for low-income students. The extent to which the U.S. Department of Education has monitored and enforced (or even could…

U.S. strength in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines has formed the basis of innovations, technologies, and industries that have spurred the nation's economic growth throughout the last 150 years. Universities are essential to the creation and transfer of new knowledge that drives innovation. This knowledge moves…

This investigation utilized self-study as an impetus for change in teaching practices for post-tenure faculty. Two instructors collaborated with 33 graduate students enrolled in a teacher research methods course. Across a ten-week term, faculty and students examined both possibilities and challenges created by running parallel class meetings each…

Twelve industrial arts (IA) teachers and supervisors were interviewed to obtain information on the significant changes that have occurred in the goals of IA. The issues were the present status of the IA curriculum in Ohio, the contribution IA makes to vocational education, the relationships between IA and vocational education, and provision for…

A course conducted between classes in Sweden and Ohio used online debate via synchronous and asynchronous computer-mediated conferencing (CMC) to augment intercultural understanding. Assumptions about CMC discourse were challenged by the international context. The process was restructured to allow asynchronous conferencing for predebate…

This descriptive study of 325 Ohio special education teachers examined factors influencing their attitudes about parents as educational collaborators. The study found that teachers view parents as more capable and are more open to parent input if they interact more frequently. Also, student age influenced openness, independent of interaction…

Public Law 99-457 mandates collaboration among agencies serving special needs preschoolers. A statewide survey investigated interagency collaboration, studied factors related to successful collaboration, identified factors that inhibit collaboration, and determined training needs of early childhood service providers. (BC)

The primary goal of this grant project was to develop a resource manual on interagency collaboration training for preschool personnel responsible for providing early childhood special education programs in Ohio. The project's first year activities included a literature review and a statewide survey upon which to base the manual. The literature…

This study examined the beliefs of kindergarten, first-, and second-grade teachers regarding families' competence to contribute knowledge to their child's educational process. Findings suggest the need to consider the beliefs of current, as well as prospective, teachers regarding the frequently neglected "other half" of the partnership,…

This paper examines perceptions of regular and special educators concerning the frequency and importance of collaborative practices in inclusive schools. Eighty schools in four rural counties of southern Ohio were ranked according to students' grade point average. A questionnaire was distributed to regular and special educators serving on…

This study examined barriers facing rural schools in serving students at-risk and the perceptions of teachers, parents, and administrators related to the difficulty in changing these barriers. Seventeen rural school districts representing 5 counties in southern Ohio participated in the study. The survey collected 846 completed responses from…

A study aimed to provide education and welfare officials with information on the experiences of welfare/education programs as they had been implemented in five states. The states (California, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin) represented a range of noteworthy approaches to providing education to welfare recipients, including some dramatic…