In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation extended grants to three educational organizations working to develop or enhance competency-based approaches in large, urbanized school systems. The grant initiative, called Project Mastery, funded the development of technology-enhanced tools, including curriculum materials and online learning…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Project Mastery grant program to support competency-based education initiatives in large school systems that serve a high proportion of disadvantaged youth. Competency-based education meets students where they are academically, provides students with opportunities for choice, and awards…

Higher-education institutions in Texas are increasingly exploring innovative approaches to structuring and delivering degree programs. Several institutions have developed competency-based degree programs, which aim to offer new pathways for students to obtain postsecondary credentials and to reduce higher-education costs for students by focusing…

This annual report of the Advanced Job Skills Training (AJST) Project describes the methodology used to develop competency-based training for child protective services (CPS) specialists who are in their first 24 months of employment. The project's steering committee determined that AJST was an inappropriate point to begin developing CPS…

The turn of the century brought a profound change in the accreditation of teacher preparation programs. This shift--from curriculum-based reviews to standards-based reviews--took place in the context of the accountability movement of the late 20th century. The 21st century ushered in what many refer to as "a culture of evidence." From…

Findings are reported of a process evaluation of the Automated Performance Tracking and Productivity Improvement Project, a project developed to enhance the productivity and efficiency of child protective services (CPS) staff and to enable Region 10 of the Texas Department of Human Services to better meet federal and state performance guidelines.…

CREATE (Criterion Referenced Education Associated to Evaluation) is a management and evaluation program developed by the Migrant Division of Region 14 Education Service Center. The evaluation plan, which is the basis for the total program, is tied directly to decision-making at all levels in the program. Utilizing a goal-oriented approach, the…

This study was designed to measure instructional design competencies as a result of participation in a 9-month Web-based training program called "Roadmap to Effective Distance Education Instructional Design." The researchers used a self-assessment pre- and posttest to determine participant initial and final competence in 12 areas: adult…

During 1975-76, 43 Texas community colleges offered real estate courses, enrolling a total of 15,739 students. The trend toward real estate professionalism has created a need for specialized programs; 35 Texas colleges currently offer or propose to offer associate of applied science degrees in real estate. The majority of colleges employ part-time…

This publication presents the foreign language profession's consensus on selected topics and is designed to address areas of interest to instructional leaders and practitioners who are concerned with developing and maintaining effective second language programs. The topics are grouped into four sections: "Preparing for the…

The first section of this report recapitualizes the Texas Teacher Center Project in history. The broad goal of the project is to improve teacher education throughout the state of Texas but, for the purposes of this report, this long-range and generalized goal is categorized into four concrete objectives: (1) changing preservice education programs;…

The goal of this project is twofold: first, to improve teacher education by developing a set of competency specifications for the role of school based teacher educators and developing a prototype set of training materials for this role; second, to develop a cooperative network among teacher centers for developing, training, and recognizing the…

This description of the development and evaluation of a model training curriculum is part of a series of three documents which together constitute a guide to the training of the Bilingual-Bicultural Child Development Associate (CDA) trainer. The introduction focuses on the objectives, background and philosophy of the Texas Bilingual-Bicultural CDA…

This final report describes the outcomes of a 3-year federally funded outreach project that was designed to increase access to quality center-based child care for infants and toddlers with disabilities. The project served 14 child care centers in West Virginia, 12 child care centers in Texas, 13 child care centers in Alabama and 6 child care…