Financial literacy refers to the ability to make informed judgements and to take effective decisions regarding the use and management of money. A baseline survey carried out by the Financial Services Agency (FSA) in 2006 highlighted many issues: (1) 29% of 16-4-year-olds said they would not know how to prepare and manage a weekly budget; (2) 19%…

This report offers California college faculty a closer look at contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) as a promising set of strategies and practices that can be expanded through the state's Basic Skills Initiative. The report is relevant to a range of instructional and counseling faculty, including academic and career and technical education…

Describes a New York City program, the Adaptive Learning Environments Model (ALEM), that successfully provided academically at-risk students instruction in regular classroom settings. The program achieved remarkable results, but, due to state policies, it was discontinued in 1983. (MD)

Reports on school research identifying and setting priorities for essential skills needed by the end of primary school to enable students to function effectively in Australian society. (MD)

This handbook provides information about the Idaho Basic Skills Project as well as processes to help identify participants who will create a successful Basic Skills Team for the school. The handbook begins with a series of questions that are intended (1) to help administrators understand the project better and (2) to help them decide on the need…

Summarizes 10 basic exam questions relating to distance, direction, time, and world interest that have confounded college freshmen entering a professor's geography classes over the past 15 years. Students bewildered by the pretest usually did not pass or even finish his course. Also, foreign students performed better than American students. (MLH)

To improve basic skills in a New Jersey school district, Outcome-Based Education was introduced. Six years later, students' basic skills scores have risen above the national norms. (MD)

Two prominent leaders in education, Charles Suhor and Jane Stallings, are interviewed concerning the present status and significant effects of the basic skills movement, the effect the National Commission on Excellence in Education report will have on basic skills education, and the number one priority for education in the future. (DCS)

Presents a case for changing the emphasis in education from training for proficiency in basic skills to teaching students how to use computers. (MD)

Project Alternative Rooms, a program developed in the Kansas City (Missouri) schools, provides basic skills instruction to Chapter 1 students using a team-teaching approach with the students and the teachers in alternative classrooms. (MD)

In 1978, the Administration for Children, Youth, and Families, through its Head Start program, designed and implemented the Basic Educational Skills (BES) project to foster Head Start children's readiness for school and their subsequent achievement in elementary school. The purpose of this document is to disseminate elementary-level BES materials.…

One Pennsylvania district's experiences suggest that key factors in improving education are (1) redefining education's purpose, focusing on the basics, (2) defining the core curriculum, (3) restructuring the existing curriculum, (4) presenting the plan to the community, (5) responding to fears, (6) maintaining commitment, and (7) keeping…

The Education Policy Committee's actions and recommendations are presented regarding resolutions passed at the fall 1981 conference of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges (ASCCC). First, a resolution recommending the pursuit of departmental articulation agreements with state colleges and universities is addressed. Statewide…

Research studies on class size date back to 1900. Common sense has suggested that small classes lead to greater academic achievement, but most research on the effects of class size on achievement have been inconclusive. Furthermore, the financial costs and political consequences of reducing class size have generally prohibited the adoption of…

This handbook seeks to provide advocates with the tools they need to encourage arts education in the schools, particularly in New Jersey. The document includes background material on arts education and advocacy, a set of 11 reasons why the arts are basic to education, and an explanation of what constitutes a quality arts education. Under the major…