Minority Engineering Programs (MEPs) use several strategies designed to retain underrepresented minorities in engineering disciplines. It is necessary to evaluate MEPs to determine which strategies contribute to the effective recruitment and retention of minorities in engineering disciplines. One method of measuring program effectiveness is to solicit the opinion of minority students about program effectiveness since they use the MEP services. This article discusses the development and administration of an instrument to assess the quality of service minority engineering freshmen received from an MEP. The results indicate that students were generally satisfied with the quality of service they received from the seven retention strategies the institution employed. These results lend further credibility to the best practices used by MEPs and is an additional piece of the evaluation puzzle that provides empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of MEP retention strategies.
Many colleges of education have embraced online course delivery as an expeditious means of delivering graduate programs. It behooves us to ensure that this delivery method does not compromise our ability to provide these students with necessary critical thinking competencies. This research was designed to determine the degree to which participants in online graduate courses value critical thinking and the degree to which they developed these skills. The results indicated that students both valued understanding, judgment, caution/skepticism, originality, and reflection/action, and developed them in their online classes. The implications confirm that online platforms allow for the development of critical thinking competencies.
The future of our democratic society depends on a strong and vibrant educational system. The 90sbrought us accountability and high stakes testing and our new millennium promises to demand evenmore sacrifices from teachers, students, and principals as expectations rise and pressures increasefor educational improvements. Quality leadership from school principals will be crucial in creatingschools capable of producing students who can excel and compete in today’s challenging globaleconomy.
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