This monograph reviews literature on, and presents recommendations for, recruiting and selecting students who will train to become teachers for urban schools. Studies show that urban patterns of poverty, early parenthood, and other social ills make urban school children at high risk for academic failure. There is a critical shortage of teachers in…

Although by traditional measures of test validity, the verbal section of the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) is not culture biased, it, along with the English Composition Test and the Test of Standard Written English, reinforces a narrow view of academic excellence that excludes culturally different youths. Designed to prevent admission errors, the…

The education voucher idea is reviewed and comparisons are made among three existing plans. The basic idea is that the government issues a voucher of monetary value directly to families to pay for education. Existing proposals include the California Coons/Sugarman plan from the 1970's, the Friedman plan, and the Jencks proposal. These plans vary…

Topics from the Williams Committee Report and implications for Monash University and Australian higher education are considered. After considering strengths and weaknesses of the report, attention is directed to the potential for growth in higher education, contracting and recurrent education, access/selection and attrition, efficiency and…

Selectivity is criticized as an index of college quality. Standardized college entrance examination scores can at best reflect college quality, it is proposed. In addition, using them as a measure of college quality assumes, perhaps erroneously, that the college admits only the highest-scoring applicants. Further reasons are these: (1) SAT scores…

The consequences of the end of minority preferences in the University of California (UC) schools of law and medicine are explored. The first students admitted into these graduate schools on a colorblind basis will begin classes in the fall of 1997. None of these students received a racial preference in admission, as a result of a 1995 decision by…

This report details the history of making higher education available to young workers and peasants in the USSR since the October Revolution of 1917. The paper is organized into six sections. The first section introduces the paper and outlines the educational system in the Soviet Union, especially the types of higher educational institutions. The…

The concept of barrier-free transfer from two-year to four-year colleges is an important element in planning for student access to the baccalaureate. While it seems clear that transfer works reasonably well for most students most of the time, evidence suggests that transfer may be a qualitatively and quantitatively different experience at the…

This report examines key questions related to the provision of educational opportunities by community colleges to those who are able to benefit from the experience. Chapter I discusses the different meanings of educational access and explains how different implications for public policy stem from various definitions and standards. Chapter II…

In response to the Bakke decision, it is suggested that efforts must be made to enlarge and improve the pool of qualified minority applicants to colleges and professional schools. Suggested improvements in elementary and secondary schools and increased community efforts will help to alleviate this problem. (BH)

This book uses an examination of admissions policies, especially affirmative action, at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), to explore higher education and its role in public debates about access, equality, and social change. Chapter 1, "The Admissions Furor: Battle Cries or More Confusion?" casts the personal side of…

An inclusive childcare program is a program that is committed to individually appropriate practice, accepting children regardless of their developmental profiles, strengths, or competencies. This conference paper addresses the problem that although inclusive programs are now commonplace, professional childcare providers are still unsure about the…

Five major issues are currently confronting community colleges. The first issue relates to the need for a new measure of institutional functioning based on curriculum content (which is poorly represented by traditional program labels such as transfer or occupational programs) and student intent (which is rarely reflected by either program labels…

Schools, colleges, and departments of education are becoming increasingly accountable for the training and evaluation of competent teachers, and are developing new ways to evaluate their graduates and their programs. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has identified three areas for evaluating teacher education…

The characteristics of the talent pool that will be available to the teaching profession is largely controlled by institutions and agencies that either have only a passing interest in the education of teachers (major universities) or by those that have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo (schools of education that are dependent on…