This study identifies and evaluates changes in secondary schools not meeting the minimum standards required by New Jersey as tested on the Minimum Basic Skills Test. The study identified the deficiencies in three urban high schools and evaluated the progress toward meeting the standards. All but 2 of the 76 recommendations made were implemented.…

The intent of the investigation reported here was to study the impact of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act (ECIA) on educational evaluation at the state and local level. The study had three major purposes: (1) to investigate the state education agency (SEA) and local education agency (LEA) responses to changing evaluation…

This report summarizes information about Family Life Education (FLE) as mandated by the New Jersey Board of Education. The information is taken from a variety of sources and three principal concerns of the state board are analyzed: (1) the status of implementation of family life education; (2) local district perceptions of training needs; and (3)…

This guide outlines the purposes, rules, procedures, funding, and status of federal education grant programs in Hawaii. These projects--funded by the United States Department of Education's Offices of Elementary and Secondary Education, Vocational and Adult Education, Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, Educational Research and…

This digest considers the problems of foreign language instruction in small high schools and discusses possible solutions. A critical challenge for American education, pointed out by reform reports of the 1980's, is improvement of instruction in foreign languages to instill language proficiency. These national concerns have been translated into…

State education agencies are in increasing agreement regarding the basic principles that should underlie state educational assessment programs, though some areas of divergent opinion remain. The agencies generally accept the ideas that comparisons between states will be made, that assessment programs should serve multiple purposes, that meaningful…

Describes the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction's three-phase planning model for microcomputer use to show other state departments how to make the integration of computer technology a much easier task. Includes information on development/implementation of the model, state recommendations, computer coordinator job responsibilities,…

Texas has moved from an education system that prescribes procedures to one that emphasizes student achievement. The plan described here provides a framework that educators and policymakers can use to coordinate federal, state, regional, and local education plans and initiatives in Texas. The plan includes the following goals: Students in the…

The Teaching Assistant Training and Teaching Opportunity (TATTO) program began in spring 1991 at Emory University to prepare graduate students to be teaching assistants, instructors, and tomorrow's professors, and is based on the premise that doctoral students should be trained in both teaching and research. The first part of the four-stage…

Since 1992, the Vermont Department of Education has granted funds to the University of Vermont (UVM) to operate the Migrant Education Program (MEP). This review by the State Auditor found that prior to fiscal year 1999, the Department did not make a concerted effort to oversee the MEP and, as a result, several critical programs components were not…

To provide information about states' efforts to track implementation of key provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA), this study examined: state goals for student proficiency and their implications for whether schools will meet those goals; factors that facilitated or impeded state and school district implementation efforts; and how the…

This report examined enrollment projections for higher education institutions in California in relation to earlier projections conducted in the mid-1990s that forecasted steep declines in enrollment. It notes that California's remarkable economic recovery over the last several years has allowed it to fund higher education enrollment growth at a…

In examining the dynamics of change processes in high schools, this study makes initial interpretations about school officials who serve as change facilitators. The researchers found that a trend exists for the source of change to come from outside the high school. Principals, assistant principals, and department heads as well as central office…

Several approaches that policymakers may wish to consider in enacting and sustaining educational excellence are summarized. This issue brief draws from presentations given at two sessions on education and excellence held at the 1983 meeting of the National Conference of State Legislatures. California's approach is highlighted, based on the…

This document contains brief descriptions of 100 school district initiatives taken in response to legislator and state department of education mandated educational reforms. Each description, contributed by a paticipant, is indexed by reform category, school district cluster, implementation level, and state. Section divisions in the index of reform…