graciously sponsored the survey, and Briggs McAndrews at NYSCOSS provided significant help with all aspects of the survey. Deborah Cunningham, Charles Szuberla, Johanna Duncan-Poitier, Nancy Willie-Schiff, and Joe Porter of the New York State Education Department (SED) reviewed the survey and provided helpful comments. Brenda Budka at SED provided the teacher certification data, and patiently answered our many questions about this data. Dan Goldhaber and Michael DeArmond of the University of Washington had a number of valuable suggestions on both the content and design of the survey. Willow Jacobson at the University of North Carolina, Pat Ingraham at Syracuse University, and Mark Robbins and Bill Simonsen, at the University of Connecticut, critiqued the survey instrument, and proposed a number of revisions to reduce length and improve clarity. We also want to thank Jeff McLellan, Kim Kirsch, and Bob Bifulco for their comments on preliminary draft of the report. We appreciate the willingness of Robert Strauss of Carnegie Mellon University to allow us to borrow from his survey on teacher hiring practices in Pennsylvania. Errors and omissions are, of course, solely the responsibility of the authors.

the New York State Board of Regents, and education scholars, researchers and policymakers from New York and around the country. By bringing education researchers together with policymakers, the Consortium seeks to address critical questions about the state of public education in New York. The Consortium’s mission is to foster an exchange of information and ideas that informs education policy decisions, assist education policy decision-makers in identifying issues that require initial or further study, and produce quality and timely research that contributes to the development of sound education policy. The Consortium is housed in the Center for Policy Research, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at Albany – SUNY. Condition reports are written using education data compiled by New York State agencies and from data independently collected by the researchers. Consortium researchers work closely with agency staff to identify and analyze trends in school district spending, school staffing and student performance. The condition reports describe various characteristics of New York State's public school systems and also identify potential areas for further study.

Acknowledgements: This project would not have been possible without significant help from a number of

- 231-Format changes have been made to facilitate reproduction. While these research projects have been selected as outstanding, other NFA EFOP and APA format, style, and procedural issues may exist.- 232-Format changes have been made to facilitate reproduction. While these research projects have been selected as outstanding, other NFA EFOP and APA format, style, and procedural issues may exist. The strategic plan has become the road map for an organization's day-to-day operation. Most organizations perform some sort of strategic or executive planning. The critical starting point in any planning process is an audit of the core values of the organization's stakeholders. A values audit is both the key to an organization's identity and the first practical step in the planning process. The problem this project examined was the lack of a workable strategic plan in the City of Markham Fire Department. The project would answer one question: What are the core values of the City of Markham Fire Department? This project was the first step in the department's upcoming strategic planning process. It involved conducting a core values audit of the members of the City of Markham Fire Department. The results would be the formal starting point for the strategic plan. The project used the descriptive method to identify the City of Markham Fire Department's values through

Enough evidence demonstrates the advantage of civil society participation in World Bank products. Participation provides key information for the planning of projects and makes programs more sustainable. Usually, projects, which have included the voices of who will be affected, are more effective and efficient. However, implementing participatory

The new century has been marked by a generalized sense that traditional work arrangements are inadequate to address the challenges organizations encounter today. The shifts from an industrial to an information-based society, and from a manufacturing to a service economy, compounded by the forces of globalization, have propelled revolutionary changes on work place