The procedures followed in the accreditation of public and private schools in each of six northwestern states were examined to determine how current practices differed and what problems were perceived, and to help develop reasonable policy options for improvement. The first section of this report considers the legal basis for accreditation in the…

When state education agencies (SEAs) set out to fulfill their increasing recognized obligation to provide services to private schools, they must make very practical policy decisions that are in turn related to value judgments about these schools' legitimacy, their right to freedom from government interference, and the extent of control the state…

The parental right to select a child's school involves more than the option to choose nonpublic education. This document reviews a number of policy options availaable to public education systems for providing educational choice. Options at the state level include the use of education vouchers, subsidized transfer to selected schools, and…

Planning staff development programs to meet changing state education agency (SEA) needs can best be undertaken by considering first what the SEA is trying to accomplish. If we look at the priorities and emphases given by the SEA to its various managerial, service, and leadership tasks, concepts of agency role and mission begin to emerge. By…

State education agencies (SEA's) must determine the policies most appropriate for the realization at the state level of the high priority placed on international education by the new U.S. Department of Education. The extent of international education (whether involving the study of different cultures, of foreign languages, of nations and…

This paper poses and responds to 10 questions about the policy issues affecting state education agencies raised by the federal government's plans to reduce expenditures for education and to consolidate several categorical aid programs into two major block grants. These 10 questions focus on the shifting relationships among and responsibilities of…

There is a growing body of credible evidence that successful efforts can be made to improve the quality of secondary education despite cutbacks in educational resources. Such efforts are demanded by the current conservative public attitude toward education, as exemplified by movements for tax and spending limitations and for the return to…

When establishing statewide and nationally comparable educational evaluation and assessment systems, state education agencies (SEAs) must consider factors affecting policy in at least four areas. First, the full range of purposes for establishing such a system should be clarified. It must be decided whether the system exists to provide data for…

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…

State Education Agencies (SEAs), in their pivotal role of representing the interests of both the public and the education establishment, must make constant reassessment of the directions which may be taken to improve education, and of the policy issues and options to be examined. These policy-level considerations can be brought into focus by…

The options available to state education agencies (SEA's) facing decisions concerning the regulation of controversial course content are discussed in this paper, which uses the issue of whether or not to mandate the teaching of creationism as an example. The author first clarifies the issues in the debate over teaching creationism, touching on the…

The problem of student abuse of drugs and alcohol demands immediate action at the state level to ensure the taking of suitable action at the local level. It is inappropriate for state agencies to refuse to act, to delegate full authority to local agencies, or to try to take an equivocal position; the most reasonable response appears to be to share…

Many strategy options are open to state education agencies interested in developing statewide programs to support and guide local school improvement efforts. Agencies can focus on instructional improvement, more general school improvement, improvement of the curricular program, or changes in educational structures. Factors influencing which of…

A survey of state education agencies (SEA's) in Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, supported by a random sampling of SEA's elsewhere in the nation, revealed several aspects of education in which the publics of all the surveyed states expressed low confidence. This document identifies eight of these issues, indicating the…

The responsibilities and prerogatives of state departments of education regarding the allocation of federal funds authorized under provisions of the draft version of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 are clarified in this report, and the resulting policy options available to state education agencies are examined. The law…