This brief notes that very few states have developed comprehensive policies to improve and support their teaching force as they implement other education reforms. In creating a coherent system of teacher support, one important place to begin is with the state board of education, which has broad authority over teacher preparation and licensure.…

This guide is designed to assist state and local consortia with their evaluation of Tech Prep education programs and with their reporting of Tech Prep program and student outcomes data to meet the accountability requirements of the Perkins Act of 1998. Intended for Tech Prep stakeholders in secondary schools and two-year colleges, the guide also…

This handbook is a tool that reporters can use to uncover the hidden dimensions of race in public education and ask the right questions about the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Section 1, "Race Revealed", includes "Special Education" (Daniel J. Losen); "Dropout and Graduation Rates" (Daniel J. Losen);…

This book was written from the Deweyan premise that children will become lifelong, self-directed learners by engaging in inquiry processes with interdisciplinary content and that, from these explorations, upper elementary and middle school students can inductively formulate concepts and generalizations that help to explain the world and what it…

Assessment of consumer needs will demand changes in delivery models and staffing patterns in student development and college service areas in the 1980s. Emphasis on lifelong learning, governmental intervention in management, shrinking fiscal support, and changing patterns of institutional governance are examples of environmental forces requiring…

Requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act present school districts with a massive lesson in data-driven decision-making. Technology companies offer data-management tools that organize student information from state tests. Offers districts advice in choosing a technology provider. (MLF)

The Association of School Business Officials International has a Meritorious Budget Award Program designed specifically to meet Canadian needs. It is a budget recognition program to promote state-of-the-art practices in the development and presentation of school board budgets. Explains criteria and how to participate. (MLF)

A study investigated whether the use of American Sign Language as an accommodation affected the validity of standards-based assessments given in 12 classrooms of students with hearing impairments. Findings indicate sign language translation can result in the omission of pertinent information required to answer test items correctly. Suggestions are…

As required by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act of 1990 (VATEA), a project was undertaken to develop an accountability system for New York State equity programs funded under sections 221 and 222 of the VATEA. This document profiles the resulting accountability system and serves as a guide for program staff…

As the general public demands to know what and how students are learning, schools face some unprecedented issues of accountability regarding student performance. In order to acquire data which is accurate and useful, teachers are turning to more formative assessment methods. These methods convey the ideas that assessment should engage students in…

The 1996 session of the North Carolina General Assembly enacted legislation, The School-Based Management and Accountability Program (the ABCs plan), an educational reform initiative designed to improve student performance. The accountability model for the public schools in kindergarten through eighth grade is designed to provide focus on the basic…

These digests provide information for educators about the nature of cooperation and how cooperative principles can be used to restructure classrooms, administrative hierarchies, and work relationships of all types. Digest 1 describes the competitive, individual, and cooperative interaction patterns and examines the impact of cooperative learning…

As state governments and the public demand greater accountability from community and technical colleges, increasing focus is placed on the concept of assessing student academic achievement. To be effective, assessment processes should provide institutions with information that helps develop specific plans for improving operations. While processes…

This publication, which includes both English and Spanish versions, explains that standards describe what students should know and be able to do at each grade level. Every school that receives money from Title I, the federal educational aid program that provides extra educational services for children who are behind in school, must have standards…

This issue brief offers principles and guidelines for evaluating educational policies on the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education settings. Special education's development into an increasingly separate system since 1975 is noted, as is the continuing influence of policies that segregate students by disability. The brief…