The problem. To consider reorganization of two or more Iowa school districts in light of declining enrollment, dwindling financial resources, the end of the state budget guarantee program and pressure to provide the most rigorous and relevant education possible to Iowa's students. Specifically, the problem is to determine what two or more school…

This is a preliminary survey of the laws and statutes that determine governance arrangements for higher education systems as well as individual institutions in 24 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. Following an overview of recent higher education governance trends within Africa, it describes the current range of practice and most common approaches…

This article presents an overview of the e-learning in India. It describes the historical developments of e-learning and identifies major stakeholders and institutions that have initiated e-learning programs after the creation of the National Task Force on Information Technology and Software Development constituted by the Prime Minister of India…

Considers how human performance technology (HPT) can achieve greater recognition in the mainstream business world by developing interventions that are framed in terms of enhancing the overall valuation of the organization's intangible assets. Discusses a consulting model that can be used with clients and stakeholders to identify barriers to…

Discussion of human performance technology (HPT) emphasizes the key variable, which is the human variable. Highlights include the Ishikawa Diagram; human performance as one variable of process performance; collaborating with other improvement approaches; value propositions; and benefits to stakeholders, including real return on investments. (LRW)

Examines instructional systems design in light of training and performance technology. Topics include the nature of design; categories of stakeholders; three levels of instructional systems design, including Curriculum Architecture Design, instructional process design, and user interface/instructional activity design; and design goals. (LRW)

Describe the role of an expert panel in setting priorities for evaluative work. An expert panel with high credibility inside and outside the organization that is at arms length to both the organization and external stakeholders can bypass many communications filters and provide a distilled and clear reading of stakeholder concerns. (SLD)

Discusses the original dreams of the founders of the American Mental Health Counselors Association; looks at history and comments on the state of mental health counseling as it has struggled to evolve as a profession. Urges those in the counseling profession to consider an acquisitions and mergers corporate mentality to ensure and enhance the…

This report is installment two of a three-part series describing research on stakeholder perceptions conducted under the auspices of the National Center for Postsecondary Improvement. The survey revealed that the public's assessment of higher education is generally favorable. The report includes discussion of survey responses and several data…

How can change become institutionalized? With the advent of a new superintendent, principal, curriculum director and/or legislature, each of whom wants to make their mark with hopes of "improving" public education by introducing new programs, the message teachers receive from those who are not in the trenches is that they are incompetent…

Remote Networked Schools (RNS) is an initiative by the Quebec Ministry of Education, Leisure and Sports (MELS) to investigate solutions that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can offer for the preservation of small rural schools in Quebec, Canada. The implementation of RNS mobilized then--as it still does now--the local…

This qualitative study examined the process of adopting online education at three private colleges. All three institutions participating in the study were private Catholic colleges that offered their first online courses in the late 1990s. The research question posed for this study was: Within the participating institutions, how did online…

Debates surrounding linguistic heritage in Northern Ireland have primarily centred on Irish (Gaelic) and Ulster-Scots. However, closer analysis suggests that there have long been other languages spoken in the region. Cantonese, Mandarin, Polish, Lithuanian and Portuguese are all spoken throughout Northern Ireland as the region experiences…

This article presents a case study of standards-based reform in early childhood education to demonstrate how a particular set of early childhood stakeholders--by laterally incorporating a range of developmental domains within their standards--provided a "rhizoanalytic" response to the Bush administration's call for early learning…

American students today have limited interest in studying mathematics and science, and academic achievement in these two foundational disciplines is demonstrably low. This reality poses an acute challenge to our ability to keep American society intellectually vibrant and to ensure that our economy is globally competitive. This Business-Higher…