Summer 2006
A Message From The President — Sixteen years ago Hezel Associates began publishing a more-or-less quarterly newsletter, then called StrataGems: News and Ideas for the Learning Media. It later evolved into what you are now reading, Strategies. Back then we were a company with just one employee (Jim Woodell, now dean at North Shore Community College, and my still-good-friend). Today Hezel Associates, LLC, employs more than 20 excellent, quality-driven individuals who execute numerous interesting projects for our varied clientele. See complete story.
Data-Based Decision Making Part I: What You Need to Know — In today’s data-driven educational climate, administrators and teachers nationwide confront a deepening expectation to use complex and diverse sources of data to inform their educational programs. Using the common language of data, educators have the means to expand their conversations about student learning beyond the classroom to the community, the region, the state and the nation. See complete story.
Benchmarking: The Best Practice That Reveals Best Practices — Benchmarking emerges as a practice in higher education as institutions aim for better alignment with national expectations and accountability takes center stage. Distance education, in particular, strives for quality assurance to attract more consumers in a competitive environment. Moreover, faculty and administrators in distance education must rely on hard data since face-to-face contact with students is rare and often non-existent. Relentlessly heightened scrutiny prompts distance educators to demonstrate the quality and merit of their programs. Through benchmarking, these programs and institutions can provide solid performance evidence to parents, students and policymakers. See complete story.
Web interFace 101: Making The Most Of Your Institution’s Web Site — The higher education industry has never been so competitive. Today, almost all educational institutions depend on tactical marketing strategies to maintain or better-yet to increase their yearly student enrollment numbers. Indeed, the survival of an institution can depend on how well it recruits students. Without adequate yearly enrollment, revenues will most likely decline yielding unsatisfactory financial results. See complete story.
Cornerstone of No Child Left Behind Legislation Shows Early Promise — Reading First, the cornerstone of No Child Left Behind(NCLB) legislation, has shown solid, early potential. Reading First is aimed at the literacy learning of students in kindergarten through third grade. This program provides students with a rigorous curriculum anchored in scientifically-based reading instructional methods and materials. Reading First also provides classroom teachers with extensive professional development for utilizing these methods and materials. Moreover, students in need of instruction beyond what a classroom teacher is able to offer are given extra attention with specialized levels of support by reading specialists. See complete story.
Instructional Coaches: Roles and Titles — Following on five years of successful delivery of online professional development courses to thousands of teachers, PBS TeacherLine has a new initiative toward the alignment of online resources with instructional coaches’ needs. Under a Ready to Teach grant from the U.S. Education Department, PBS TeacherLine is developing resources designed to make instructional coaches more effective and productive. In the process of conducting early developmental research, Hezel Associates, the project evaluator, reviewed the literature about coaches and coaching to inform the development process. We also conducted a national sampling survey of schools on aspects of coaching and mentoring. See complete story.
Rethinking Education in a Flat World — More than 4,000 higher education attended Tom Friedman’s key note address at the recent Campus of the Future meeting. “Something big happened while I was sleeping. The global economic playing field is being leveled and the U.S. is not ready,” Friedman said. The heads nodded in agreement, yet agreement on the implication for postsecondary institutions remains elusive. See complete story.
HA Digest
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Our People -
The National University Telecommunications Network (NUTN) announced the 2006 recipients of its annual awards at NUTN 2006 in Minneapolis, MN, including Dr. Dr. Richard T. Hezel who received the J.O. Grantham Leadership Award.
Barbara C. Storandt was recently promoted to research and evaluation manager. Read more. -
Our Work -
Hezel Associates begins its second year of external evaluation next month on instructional materials designed to help New York State teachers improve their students’ performance.
In a move sure to alter the way distance education measures quality, the National University Telecommunications Network (NUTN), Hezel Associates and Cisco Systems today released an innovative tool for quality assessment. Read more. - Our Ideas -
Hezel Associates is weighing in on education’s hot topics. Look for members of the Hezel team at several upcoming conferences. Read more.
