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Topic: Education    
 

	21st Century Agenda for State Planning and Policy in Higher Education
	October 15, 2007 by Paul Lingenfelter   21st Century Higher Education Agenda State planning and policy for all levels of education, but especially higher education are increasingly focused not on the growth of facilities, institutions, and programs, but on increasing educational attainment, quality, and the productivity of the system.   State planning to increase attainment, quality, and productivity is growing in the United States, but with fits and starts and periodic backsliding. In many places state policy for higher education is still conceived narrowly as the sum of institutions, their growth, reputation, and relative prosperity. While this perspective is well within the comfort zone for most institutional administrators, it is much more likely to reinforce an “us vs. them” relationship between higher education and public leaders than to generate the public enthusiasm and support needed to meet 21st century higher education challenges. What does it take to make and sustain progress on attainment, quality, and productivity? A deeper look into the states described above suggests some answers. · First, progress requires leadership. In every case, some statewide leader, a governor, a legislator, a state higher education executive, a state board chair, or a coalition of these leaders took initiative, articulated an agenda, and then over several years invested a substantial amount of energy and credibility in strategic planning and implementation. · Second, progress requires information. In Illinois especially, the effort to increase productivity was fueled and directed by a superb data system which helped leaders focus on higher priorities and identify lower priorities where resources could be found for reallocation. But data are important everywhere; in all of these states, information has played a key role in articulating an agenda, defining goals, and monitoring progress. ·  Third, progress requires a “trans-institutional perspective.” Institutions deliver instruction, research, and public service, but they work in the context of P-20 systems, a state economy, and a community of other institutions with strengths, weaknesses, and material differences in what and how they can contribute to broader public purposes. Real progress requires a statewide perspective on institutional resources and broad public priorities, and a means for institutions to find the niche where they can serve the public most effectively. ·  Fourth, sustained progress requires broad ownership and continuity of leadership. While small size may have made it easier for the Dakotas to elevate consultative process to a high art, every state needs to 15 make significant investments in widespread “buy-in” in order to sustain progress. A broadly inclusive process helps reduce, but cannot prevent loss of momentum when top leaders change. Progress in every one of these states (except Kentucky) benefited from a state higher education executive who had been in office well over five years. In Kentucky the enormously high profile of “reform” and its codification in law have helped sustain momentum even when governors and state executives changed. ·   Fifth, the implementation of a strategic plan requires continuous monitoring and maintenance. While political, civic, and institutional leaders must be involved, none of them have the capacity to focus on follow-through. That role is a full-time job, and it has been the responsibility of the statewide governing or coordinating board for higher education. ·  And sixth, progress requires shared commitment and shared rewards. The Illinois P*Q*P initiative could not have succeeded had it been conceived and implemented as a “do more with less” initiative. Educators in all of these states have discovered political leaders are more willing to provide support for higher education when the higher education system effectively addresses public priorities. Progress on attainment, quality, and productivity will continue to grow, because the external environment of higher education will demand it. The national movements described here will continue to influence and shape state policy, and the individual states will continue to experiment, borrow ideas from each other, and employ outside resources as they address these issues for their own citizens.
	Bringing Psychological Science to the Forefront of Educational Policy
	September 1, 2007 by Steve Rollin   Steve Rollin, PhD, co-authored the article, “Bringing Psychological Science to the Forefront of Educational Policy: Collaborative Efforts of the American Psychological Association’s Coalition for Psychology in the Schools and Education.” The article details the coalition’s work on educational policy, student assessment, achievement, learning and teaching methods. Due in March 2008.
	Let's value the education process, not the political rhetoric
	August 31, 2007 by Tom Watkins   Article by well respected educator Tom Watkins, Michigan's superintendent of schools from 2001-2005.  Mr. Watkins is a long-time friend and colleague.  He writes: "As a new school year begins, let's reflect on the value our institutions of learning have to us individually and collectively as a society. As my father would remind me, 'your integrity and education are something that are difficult to earn, but once achieved, cannot be taken away easily.'"
	Serious flaws found in study criticising abstinence-only sex education
	August 27, 2007 by Scott Gilbreath   Uganda succeeded in slashing its HIV prevalence from 16% to 6% by encouraging abstinence and faithfulness before condom usage. Critics of abstinence programs should review the work of Jokin de Irala, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Navarre, Spain, believes opponents conclusions are unwarranted and unsupported.
	Stepping in when schools fail
	August 22, 2007 by Steve Rollin   "This is a silver lining in a law that a lot of people have been critical of. I think it does provide our profession a chance to get involved with an important part of our culture: public education."  Steve Rollin, Coalition for Psychology in Schools and Education
	Helping teachers teach effectively
	December 1, 2006 by Lea Winerman   Stephen Rollin, PhD, chair of the coalition, described how psychologists could bring their know-how directly to schools by providing study skills training and other supplemental services through the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The legislation requires that school districts provide money for children in underperforming schools to receive supplemental educational services, like tutoring. The supplemental services must be research-based, high-quality and specifically designed to increase academic achievement, according to the law. "This supplementary service provider could theoretically be a psychologist teaching study skills," suggested Rollin, a Florida State University educational psychology professor. He has also developed, with APA program officer Heidi Sickler, an NCLB supplemental-services primer for psychologists that is being distributed by the coalition.
	Banding together for education
	October 1, 2006 by Deborah Smith Bailey   Steve Rollin helps create the Coalition for Psychology in Schools in Education. Their aim, he explained, is to pull together the diverse perspectives of psychologists who are interested in research on preschool through high school education.
	Survey under way to assess teachers' needs
	November 1, 2005 by M. Dittmann   "We really want to take a look at the kinds of problems teachers have and how we can assist them through training" ---Chair Stephen Rollin, EdD, a professor in the combined counseling and school psychology program at Florida State University.
	Tough Love
	September 18, 2003 by Larry Wills   An Article on Camp Make Believe
	Florida Charter Schools
	February 20, 2003 by JC Bowman   JC Bowman's 2003 Testimony in the Florida Senate on Charter Schools.
	If You Can Read This...
	September 1, 2002 by David Coffey   "The major goal of any reading and English language arts instruction is to allow students to become fluent readers, writers and thinkers, who are able to comprehend, learn from and add to the collective imagination, experience and wisdom of all human history."
	A Lesson Plan for the Nation
	June 1, 2001 by JC Bowman   A close look at NCLB from 2001.

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