This publication is a safety handbook designed for science teachers of elementary and secondary schools. In an effort to insure prevention of accidents in school laboratories, it advocates careful planning, adequate experimental design, and the acquisition of correct laboratory techinques on the part of the teacher. The handbook gives instructions…

The increasing costs of higher education and doubts about its importance, and the decreasing marketability of a college degree have made those responsible for appropriating public funds and the consumers of higher education services demand greater accountability from public institutions. These demands, as well as internal demands for greater…

This book provides a comprehensive overview of the competency based teacher education (CBTE) approach. The individual papers comprising the chapters were written at different times, but collectively they provide a sequential introduction and analysis of the concept. A chapter on definitions provides a system for analyzing a CBTE program by…

Many schools are under pressure to meet new standards of learning mistakenly believe that they must adopt a narrow curriculum that imposes strict boundaries on what students are taught. In this book, Susan M. Drake and Rebecca C. Burns address this issue by offering strategies for synchronizing standards across the disciplines. At the heart of the…

American education has always had its critics, and undoubtedly always will. Nonetheless, there are signs that the educational environment is improving in unexpected ways. This issue of the Brookings Papers on Education Policy, the eighth volume springing from a series of annual meetings sponsored by the Brookings Institution to examine specific…

Arizona has nearly 25 percent of the charter schools in the nation. These Arizona schools present something new: the first system approaching comprehensive school choice in the real world. This edited volume assembles the perspectives of social scientists and education practitioners and gives the first published account of the Arizona charter…

Educational standards and accountability are at the center of an ongoing national debate on school reform that began almost 20 years ago. This debate has raised fundamental questions about school effectiveness and the strategies educators should use to boost student learning. This book provides a closer look at these questions and seeks to answer…

This report provides guidance and information on resources to assist elementary schools, parents, community members, and policymakers in implementing a systemic approach to standards-based education. It makes clear recommendations on how schools can achieve a coordinated system in which standards, assessment, accountability, and curriculum are…

The Accrediting Commission for Schools, Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) has recently developed a new protocol for accrediting schools entitled "Focus on Learning" (FoL). This monograph explains how the FoL process can influence student learning and serve as a vehicle for school improvement and accountability. The following…

Education reforms such as "A Nation at Risk" and "Goals 2000" have come and gone. However, we can be confident that the goal of student improvement shall not pass if the core mission is student learning. The true mission of learning has prompted educators to ponder the following questions: How do we need each student to behave?…

The goal of this report is to formulate a true alternative to the current form of governance for public education. Based on studies of governance in other large decentralized service organizations and of local educational reform efforts, the report concludes that there is a real alternative. The alternative allows the schools to be operated by a…

Incorporating school-site management into the nation's educational systems will demand wholesale changes involving the very structure and organization of schools. Aimed at practitioners desiring to implement school-based management (SBM), this book is organized into chapters designed to enhance the sequential phases of application. Chapter 1…

This monograph presents the viewpoints of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) on the subject of Performance Based Teacher Education (PBTE). These manuscripts, solicited from members of the staffs of these two major teacher organizations, describe the concerns that members of the profession have…

Presenting an historical review of policy re Maine's American Indians, this monograph documents the development of: Indian policy prior to 1965 (treaties and legislation); the initial years of Maine's Department of Indian Affairs (DIA); Indian recognition and the courts; and recognition of Maine's off-reservation Indians. Specifically, this paper…

This 10-chapter book discusses the research process and how it can be used to improve educational practice. The assumption is made that schools can and do make a difference in the educational progress of students, and that research data can be used to improve educational practice. Important current educational topics are also presented. These…