Any debate about general education is seen as a debate about culture, curricula, and proportion; common or not so common values; the nature of knowledge and the desire and necessity of transferring traditions from one generation to the next; and the degree to which undergraduate study should emphasize specialization. (MLW)

The task of general education should be to provide a broad framework for understanding, an intellectual context within which factual information can meaningfully be comprehended. Each framework should have at least three qualities in common: an historical dimension, an intellectual dimension, and an analytical dimension. (MLW)

Educators of the eighties and nineties, it is suggested, are responsible for making sure that Americans enter the twenty-first century with a view as wide as the world. The widest and most neglected frontier of United States educational reform is seen as a global perspective on all studies. (MLW)

Two remedial, basic skills programs at two predominately Black colleges-- Miles College in Birmingham, Alabama, and Tougaloo College in Mississippi--are compared by Tougaloo composition teacher John Monro, formerly a dean at Harvard. He argues that such programs are justified by their successes. (JMF)

A national research project, known as the CRSP (Career Related Skills Project) which suggests that liberal arts study teaches students skills needed for employment in the field of commerce, as well as in all occupational fields, is described. (MLW)

Discusses the need to improve basic skills of students at community colleges, including the need for faculty to accept their role as teachers, not professors; the importance of training faculty in teaching skills; recognition by community colleges of their role in developing basic skills and job skills; and enrolling students only in courses for…

Conflicting definitions reveal the diversity of motives and goals in the back-to-basics movement. Dealing with the problem must include consideration of the impact of television, the realization that basic and nonbasic education are complementary, and the need for coordination of K-12 and postsecondary education. (JMF)

The Commercial Credit Company's programed learning packages, operated through computers, are used by the Mayor's Office of Manpower Resources in Baltimore to teach basic skills and some job-related skills to functionally illiterate job seekers. The program, its development, and its funding are discussed. (JMD)

The system of competency tests used by the University of Georgia System is examined. Arguments for and against the tests developed by the state board of regents are presented, and the issue of racial discrimination is also addressed. (JMF)

Scores in reading and comprehension on the University of Minnesota Reading and Speed of Reading examinations for the years 1928 and 1978 were compared. The 1978 freshmen were found to be at least one grade level below their 1928 counterparts in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and rate of reading. (MLW)

Educational reform by Miami-Dade Community College is discussed by its president, Robert H. McCabe. In an action that is considered unusual for two-year schools, it has tightened controls on its curriculum, faculty, and students. A commitment to achieving higher levels of literacy is advocated. (MLW)

Many states are turning to minimum-competency testing at the secondary school level. Although at least 17 states have enacted legislation that sets minimum-competency standards for graduation from public high schools, the basic skills testing movement at the postsecondary level is still in its infancy. (MLW)

Remediation programs have been successful in boosting poorly prepared minority undergraduates. Several different approaches are described that combine reconditioning, psychology, and simple faith. (JMF)

Steps taken by various states and individual institutions to determine a minimum level of accomplishment among students and to define the basic components of a college education are outlined. These include curriculum evaluations, standards review, and testing. (JMF)