This digest summarizes the rights and responsibilities of parents of children in the special education process under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997. Among 12 rights listed are a free appropriate public education for every child, written notification for any proposed evaluations, re-evaluation or change in…

The challenge of preparing young people for employment and facilitating the smooth transition from school to work has spurred the enactment of the federal School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA), in May 1994. The intent of STWOA is to establish a national framework in which states can create work- and school-based learning systems that include…

The contextual considerations outlined in this digest provide a framework for career counseling with Canadian Native youth, a process which requires an unusually large range of cultural understanding and an appreciation of diversity and uniqueness. Counselors need to be aware of individual diversity within Native groups. Four Native…

Future workers will need to develop global awareness and an understanding of competitive, cultural, and economic factors that influence ways of doing business to work in the international arena. Vocational education, the educational program area specifically designed to prepare students for work, must infuse international concepts into programs so…

This ERIC Digest reports on the outcomes of a conference of teachers, college history professors, teacher educators, and state and local school board members. The theme of the meeting was that if, according to the standards-based strategy for democratic school reform, all students in every school are to be offered an equally solid and engaging…

In light of recent calls by educational organizations to abolish tracking because of its role in perpetuating inequities in achievement among racial and ethnic groups, this digest looks at current school detracking efforts. An initial section reviews the extent and reasons for tracking and the concerns raised when detracking is proposed, noting…

A review was undertaken of strategies for increasing Hispanic American parental involvement in their children's schools. Despite the continued strong extended family support for child rearing in the Hispanic American community, parent participation in their children's education is quite low. Studies show that many Hispanic Americans regard the…

In many respects, career education has never been needed more than it is today. The need to keep abreast of technological change and to participate effectively in today's high-performance workplace requires each worker to possess a set of basic competencies and a foundation of skills and personal qualities. The competencies, foundation skills, and…

Tech prep was created to serve high school students in the two middle quartiles who neither prepare for further study nor gain adequate technical workplace skills by blending liberal and practical arts into a 2+2 secondary-postsecondary articulated curriculum leading to an associate degree. Tech prep is a cornerstone of the Carl D. Perkins…

A 1982 study revealed that American Indians comprise .8% of public school students, but only .3% of those participating in gifted programs, whereas respective White figures are 73.3% and 82%. Factors contributing to the inappropriateness of standardized assessment tools for identification of gifted American Indian students are neglect of…

The digest summarizes major characteristics of American Indian student needs in the disciplines of science and math and offers constructive ways in which students may be motivated for greater achievement. Motivational, attitudinal, and behavioral factors contributing to avoidance of science and math by American Indian students are identified:…

School reorganization has been used extensively as a strategy to deal with the problems of small and rural schools. However, there is no comprehensive evidence to prove that consolidation has met the problems of finance, staff, facilities, and curriculum for which it has been advocated, nor are consolidation's disadvantages and ill-effects of the…

Current educational research efforts are examining rural/urban differences in achievement, appropriateness of rural/urban achievement measures, effects of parents and community on the attainment of rural students, and how well rural students succeed in higher education. To accurately assess the small, rural school's impact on students, rural-urban…

School-age children between the ages of 5 and 14 spend up to 80% of their time out of school. These hours represent an opportunity to help children grow and acquire important social, emotional, cognitive, and physical skills and to help them develop lifelong interests. This time can also be used to provide support for the academic challenges faced…

As career development becomes established in Canadian secondary schools, the pressure increases to use performance assessments to demonstrate both the effectiveness of programs and the soundness of instructional decisions. This digest examines issues surrounding performance assessments of career development programs. Performance assessments can be…