A master plan in higher education is developed to address the academic and workforce needs of a particular state. The master plan helps serve as the roadmap for implementation of proposed strategies to reach state goals in education and degree attainment. In Tennessee, Drive to 55 is a state-wide effort to increase the number of Tennesseans with a…

Intended to provide background information for a special advisory commission created by the state legislature to study the desirability of a state library networking system, this series of 12 papers prepared by the staff librarians of the Virginia State Library summarizes the workings of various network programs, techniques for implementing them,…

In an effort to depoliticize design-build contracts, the Commonwealth of Virginia created a management review board to determine whether a locality should be authorized to use a design-build contract in lieu of competitive sealed bidding. This paper explains that process. In order to employ a design-build contract for a specific construction…

This guide advocates an alliance among diverse groups for the purpose of decreasing the incidence of adolescent pregnancy and improving the outcome of pregnancies that do occur. It provides useful information for communities interested in developing pregnancy prevention activities. Statistics about adolescent pregnancies are given and the…

In the past two years, 26 states have established task forces to study issues of quality, mission, efficiency, governance, access, and financial support and arrive at some new solutions. What separate these initiatives from previous ones are their magnitude and scope and the resources used. (MSE)

The educational reform movement has caused parents, students, businesspersons, and legislators to question the relevance of vocational education. Charges that vocational education has become obsolete have compelled vocational educators to work on improving its image in three areas--function, quality, and style. The vocational education programs in…

This report identities significant characteristics and implications of state programs that provide financial aid to students in private, independent non-profit colleges and universities and describes one program in detail, Virginia's Tuition Assistance Grant (TAG) Program. Following an introduction in Section 1, Section 2 reviews the scope of…