This comprehensive and up-to-date history of American education encourages critical thinking by offering alternative interpretations of each major historical period. It shows how educational history is nested within and shaped by the larger forces, including mass media, that shape the dissemination of knowledge and power within society.…

Scotland has a system of national surveys of achievement intended to provide information for educational policy and practice. Testing of middle school students in the areas of mathematics, reading, English, and science, is designed to provide national information as opposed to information about individual pupils, schools or local authorities. This…

Designed to be integrated into a regular language arts curriculum in grades 1-3, the program begins with a review of the recent history of elementary second language programs in the United States and a discussion of the direction the movement might take in the 1980s. Research done on nonintensive, nonbilingual second language programs in the past…

The elimination of student overcrowding--the objective in writing this report and the objective in seeking reforms of the school facilities construction process--must be the top priority for the city in the next decade. The premise of this report is that much of the planning process for building and repairing schools requires fundamental change,…

A 1-day workshop preceded a meeting of the National Educational Research Policies and Priorities Board of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) to help the Board consider the most appropriate structure for research and dissemination in education. The workshop opened with a presentation by William Raub, who provided a view on…

"Illiterates" are those who have not learned to write in any language. This is the definition on which American and most foreign statistics of illiteracy are based, because the percentage of those who can read but can not write is so small that it may be ignored. The test of writing one's name and ordinary words is simple, easily…

The continuing interest which American educators and other citizens have attached to Soviet schools and their development has served to encourage the U.S. Office of Education in its efforts to provide the most complete and verified information obtainable on the subject. As expressed in "Soviet Commitment to Education, Report of the First…

A discussion of distance education in nursing and pharmacy fields looks at the history of distance education; issues in program design (resources, politics, student populations, policy); planning (finances, curriculum, technology, resources, faculty); implementation; evaluation; and outcomes (graduates, career mobility, institutional image).…

Defines African-centered education, and reviews the history and philosophy of independent African-American institutions, discussing the academic, social, and cultural development aspects emphasized in these schools. Includes recommendations for educators working with African-American children and African-centered curricula. (SLD)

Examines how U.S. public schools have responded to increasing numbers of limited English proficient students, given the limited supply of bilingual teachers and, in this context, examines language segregation in desegregated schools. Educational policymakers have a difficult time reconciling desegregation goals' requirements for comprehensible…

Close investigation of trends in high school student course taking indicates that curriculum differentiation has had a negative effect on the education of many young people, particularly working-class and black students. It is argued that national goals and standards, wisely developed and applied, can benefit American education. (SLD)

Calls for education improvement are often predicated on a decline in U.S. education. Past U.S. high school students' knowledge is examined through U.S. history test data from 1915 to 1925 and national achievement test data for 1932 to 1965. Evidence does not support a decline in student knowledge. (SLD)

Reviews the history and status of education for African Americans in Prince Edward County (Virginia), one of the five school systems involved in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. The contemporary situation is fairly typical of desegregated American schools, with extensive grouping and differentiation of programs. (SLD)

Experiences of the Des Moines (Iowa) public schools as they work for educational improvement and school restructuring are described. The school system will be considered successful only if what is taught is learned at an acceptable level by all students. Restructuring is traced from its 1989 inception to the present. (SLD)

Explores and contrasts early efforts to set standards in mathematics and social studies, juxtaposing California's revisions of its history and social science curricula and the standard-setting approach of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Both programs achieved success in part because of their development strategies. (SLD)