The proceedings of a regional working conference on educational and employment equity for Blacks and Hispanics in New England is presented. The purpose of the conference was to address the nine findings and 20 recommendations set forth in a recent New England Board of Higher Education (NEBHE) report, "Equity and Pluralism," which warns…

This report focuses on effective urban schools in the context of desegregation. The introduction takes a retrospective and prospective look at desegregation in terms of: (1) progress since the last report; (2) the changing focus of equal educational opportunity; (3) an agenda for the 1980s; and (4) equity and choice. The second section provides…

This guide is intended to help teachers, counselors, and other vocational educators to develop programs that increase access to vocational opportunities for females, minorities, disadvantaged, handicapped students, and students with special needs of limited English proficiency in Massachusetts. The guide is divided into four parts. Part 1,…

This booklet contains a collection of services available to professional educators in the state of Massachusetts. Services in the areas of curriculum materials, field trip sites, films, and training and support services are included. While services are broadly categorized under curriculum areas, an index to locate names of specific organizations…

The handbook provides information in question-and-answer format on the legal rights of developmentally disabled persons, focusing on those in the state of Massachusetts. An introductory section discusses developmental disabilities and advocacy. The main section, on legal rights, covers such areas as discrimination (including Section 504 of the…

This manual is said to be intended to bring together under one cover the fundamental documents relating to the landmark legislation, the Transitional Bilingual Education Act. A general synopsis of Chapter 71A of the Act includes what a program in transitional bilingual education consists of, who has the right to it, and what the obligations of the…

In recent years, federal mandates in education have become the subject of increasing debate. Adam R. Nelson's "The Elusive Ideal"--a postwar history of federal involvement in the Boston public schools--provides lessons from the past that shed light on the continuing struggles of urban public schools today. This far-reaching analysis…

This report provides data on the academic achievement gap that separates low-income and minority students from other students, examining how well different groups of students perform in Massachusetts and noting inequities in teacher quality, course offerings, and funding. Included are tables and data that provide: a frontier gap analysis (a…

In July 1985 the Supreme Court ruled in Aguilar v. Felton that public school employees could no longer provide instruction, including Chapter 1 services, on religious school premises, previously the most common service delivery model used. This study addresses the following questions: (1) what portion of the decline in services to nonpublic school…

Guidelines to aid in formulating a workable career guidance program at the local level are provided in a handbook for Massachusetts counselors and educators. An overview of the handbook and a position paper of the State Board of Education are presented in chapter 1. The next five chapters discuss (1) program planning and development; (2) school…

Standards-based reform is a strategy that includes specifying what is to be learned, devising tests to measure learning, and establishing consequences of performance for students and schools. Popular support remains strong for standards-based reform, according to national polling data as well as local data in the states implementing this strategy.…

In April 1984, more than 350 parents, teachers, principals and administrators from major urban school systems in Massachusetts met to define what an "excellent" desegregated urban public school system should be. This conference report, following excerpts from a keynote address by John E. Durkin, documents seven workshops which focused on…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Graduation for All, A Right and a Responsibility: National Campaign to Focus on Increasing High School Graduation…

This volume, the second in a two-volume guide designed to provide vocational educators in Massachusetts with some practical tools for planning and implementing student recruitment strategies in their local areas, offers step-by-step instructions for implementing specific recruitment strategies. The first chapter examines the benefits of holding…

This report compares Massachusetts's reading and mathematics performance on the most recent administrations of the state assessment with performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). To indicate how Massachusetts is doing in narrowing the academic achievement gap between African American, Latino, or low-income students and…