The book analyses and evaluates several key community college reform programs that emerged after the Recession of 2008 and as a result of major initiatives in California, New York, Tennessee, Florida, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Because of the economic downturn in the early 21st Century, an already eroding financial base for public higher education…

We describe here two open-ended laboratory investigations for an undergraduate laboratory course that uses students' DNA as templates for quantitative real-time PCR and for traditional PCR followed by RFLP analysis. Students are captivated by the immediacy of the application and the relevance of the genotypes and traits, lactase persistence or…

Science education blogs can serve as powerful digital lab notebooks that contain text, images, and videos. Each blog entry documents a moment in time, but becomes interactive with the addition of readers' comments. Blogs can provide a realistic experience of the peer-review process and generate evolving descriptions of observations through time.…

To assist Wisconsin education leaders with planning for Response to Intervention (RtI), the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI), in partnership with Wisconsin education stakeholders, has developed this informational brief. This brief is intended to provide guidance for implementation of RtI and should not be read as administrative…

Many would say that while there are two ways to enter the teaching profession--traditional and alternative--there seems to be a common way to leave it: quickly. Across the board, more than half of beginning teachers leave teaching before their fifth year, and that percentage is even higher in urban public schools and for those prepared by some…

This document reports on a study to determine differential attitudes of experienced and inexperienced teachers toward supervision and evaluation. The basic hypothesis was that experienced teachers would have significantly different attitudes toward the concepts of supervision and evaluation than would inexperienced interns. A sample of 100…

Intended for teachers of the learning disabled (LD), the guide addresses philosophical and procedural issues in assessment. The first section introduces a philosophical framework which views assessment as an ongoing, goal-directed, integral part of the overall educational process. The remainder of the guide focuses on Wisconsin's procedures for…

In K-12 classrooms, as well as on the college and university level, the incorporation of digital games has played a vital role in the educational system. While introducing teachers to new fields, these digital games have been designed and implemented for the classroom and have shown positive results at a variety of educational levels. Cases on…

The guide was intended for use by teachers of learning disabled students involved in assessment procedures. A philosophical framework, in which assessment is viewed in the ongoing team process, is followed by review of Wisconsin's rules on the identification of learning disabilities. A report format is presented as an outline for consolidating…

A semester-long study examined the assessment instruments and techniques currently being used by companies participating in the Wisconsin Workplace Partnership Training Program (WWPTP). Twenty-four instruments that may be categorized as either standardized tests, competency-based and criterion-reference measures, or participatory assessment…

This packet contains guidelines, a student competency checklist, and student evaluation sheet for use in a Wisconsin school-to-work state skill standards certificate program in construction. The guidelines provide a planning resource for implementing the program, which was created in partnership with unions, employers, the state Department of…

The guide is intended to be a practical tool for screening and identifying Wisconsin students suspected of being emotionally disturbed (ED). It contains information on the legal requirements for the identification and placement of ED students as well as the definition of emotional disturbance and techniques for screening and evaluation. Sample…

The Southeastern Wisconsin Workplace Communication Project is a workplace English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) resource and outreach program involving a partnership of businesses and adult educators in a rural area that has experienced an increase in new speakers of English in the manufacturing workforce. The guide provides workplace educators and…

The second edition of this guide, as did the first, describes a set of characteristics that define the Wisconsin framework for a successful school, one in which all students meet high academic and behavioral standards. It is intended to be used by practitioners to assess their own performance, guide improvement plans, and solicit feedback from…

This publication is designed as a tool to assist science curriculum committees and individuals plan a science program. The guide offers methods for a local committee to use when developing the curriculum for their program. The guide embraces Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards for Science and the National Science Education Standards. A program…