In this paper, the dissolution of the silos between geography and business faculty to form a teaching partnership with a common set of questions and goals and how that partnership changed their academic perspectives will be explored. Faculty deepened the challenges for students, re-thought pedagogical models, and re-thought grading and evaluation.…

This article analyzes the use of research evidence in school-board deliberations in three school districts in Wisconsin. In these settings, the circulation, meaning, and function of research depended importantly on the interests and backgrounds of advocates, the composition of audiences, and the values and contexts of decision-making. Board…

Across the United States many chemistry departments are engaged in developing assessment plans. New guidelines from the American Chemical Society (ACS) Committee on Professional Training request a department's latest self-assessment and a plan for acting on the recommendations. This manuscript describes assessment practices at institutions ranging…

Communities face powerful challenges--a high-school dropout epidemic, youth unemployment, teen pregnancy--that require powerful solutions. In a climate of increasingly constrained resources, those solutions must help communities to achieve more with less. A new kind of community collaborative--an approach that aspires to significant,…

This report, designed as one component of the comprehensive evaluation of the Milwaukee school system being conducted by the School Choice Demonstration Project (SCDP), is based on focus group conversations with low-income families whose children attend Milwaukee public and private schools. The report seeks to elucidate the demand side of school…

This study examined how closely 11 accepted principles for managing budgets were followed at 98 public college campuses during the first half of the 1990s, a period of budget problems. The colleges reviewed were in six states: California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. The study found that (1) planning was not inclusive,…

This Wisconsin study responded to a state law (1989 Wisconsin Act 82) requiring evaluation of the fiscal and programmatic impact of limiting the involvement of school district employees, other than health care professionals, in providing specialized physical health care services to pupils. Responses of 495 (out of 1,000) schools surveyed found the…

A plan for reducing or consolidating institutions and programs of the University of Wisconsin (UW) is presented, based on a request by Wisconsin Governor Patrick J. Lucey in 1975. The Governor's basic fiscal and enrollment assumptions are identified, and the findings and recommendations of the UW system President John Weaver are presented. Part 1…

To demonstrate career education methods and procedures, seven Wisconsin school districts were chosen to participate in an incremental improvement project. Project activities were conducted district-wide and by individual districts. District-wide dissemination activities involved promoting demonstration packets and assessment/evaluation (AE)…

Third-party evaluation of the Wisconsin Career Education Consortium (WCEC) was conducted over two years, utilizing a time series evaluation design established in 1975. On-site interviews, surveys, and tests were used to collect data from students, teachers, counselors, parents, and administrators. The WCEC was effective in disseminating career…