For this exploratory study, 20 child care aides, teachers, and directors in 4 different types of child care centers in Santa Clara County, California, were interviewed. The four centers were: (1) a nonprofit center subsidized by the state that served 166 children of AFDC-eligible parents or parents in job training programs; (2) a nonprofit center…

In 1988, Midlands Technical College (MTC) launched a comprehensive institutional effectiveness initiative involving two primary components, planning and evaluation. Planning at MTC is composed of a strategic planning cycle and a complementary operational planning cycle. Strategic planning, conducted in two-year cycles, establishes the essential…

The paper details development, implementation, and user research/evaluation of TI-IN Network, Inc., the first private, interactive satellite based educational system in the United States developed for public schools and offering a total systems approach by providing both user technology and a wide range of course offerings. An overview of specific…

The issue of faculty vitality and an institutional case study are discussed, along with implications for academic policy. The literature of faculty vitality reveals a situational, contextual dimension that makes defining the concept difficult. It is helpful to view the college as an organization in which faculty members pursue careers as scholars,…

The purpose of this study is to shift the focus of research away from problems faced by administrators making reduction in force or reassignment/rank reduction policies to a consideration of the experiences of those affected by such policies. Following descriptions of the study's open-ended ethnographic interviewing technique, the criteria for…

Described here is the followup study of the educational and employment experiences of the graduates of a nontraditional degree program that allows students to design their own four-year programs. Graduates of the experimental Bachelor of Elected Studies (BES) program at the University of Minnesota are compared with regular liberal arts graduates…

At the request of the Future Farmers of America (FFA), an analysis was conducted of reasons for a decline in membership in 1977-79 after a 40-year period of steady growth. Factors such as the vocational-agriculture teacher shortage, number of chartered FFA chapters, certification status of teachers, FFA membership costs, and contract length of…

A followup study of perceptions held by female and male nontenured faculty concerning retention, professional development, and quality of life was conducted. The followup study included faculty hired since 1975 who were previously studied in 1979, along with faculty hired since 1979. In March 1981, questionnaires were mailed to 116 women and 189…

Employer-sponsored recurrent (or lifelong) learning has grown from its World War II beginnings to become a large, important, but little-studied aspect of American education, one with major implications for the U.S. economy and society. U.S. employers spend from 20 to 100 billion dollars on educational programs for anywhere from 37 to 73 million…

The primary purposes of this study were to determine at each successive level of education the relevance of that education to the graduates, the level of jobs and salaries secured, and graduates' opinions of the education just completed. The three study populations consisted of all the 1974-75 school-year graduates from 10 city of Toledo high…

A theory, which proposed a hierarchy of determinants of student ratings of instruction, was tested. Situational variables such as class size, elective enrollment, and grade expectancy were hypothesized to be only indicators of more potent determiners. These motivational constructs were diversity of enrollment motives and subject matter interests,…

The effect of class size, course level, instructor rank, campus, and subject area on 14,366 student ratings of 488 science and mathematics classes at a main university and 18 branch campuses was investigated. Class means were factor-analyzed and four resultant components of teaching performance were submitted to a 2x2x2x2x3 MANOVA. Discriminant…

In an attempt to bridge the gap between general and vocational education, the Postgraduate School of Education at Agder College in Norway launched a trial teacher education program in 1996 that called for prospective vocational and academic/general teachers to attend the same course. The course, which was designed to encourage students to accept a…

Two-hundred and fifty parents of children with emotional or behavioral disorders residing in Oregon were surveyed concerning the nature and extent of support they received. Parents were affiliated with the Oregon Family Support Network, a statewide, parent-run, information and family advocacy organization. One hundred usable surveys were returned.…

This study investigated the effects of school-level and individual-level factors influencing the participation and nonparticipation of secondary school teachers in continuing professional education (CPE). Researchers randomly selected 25 out of Hong Kong's 442 secondary schools to participate. All teachers in the schools were invited to complete a…