A study designed to consider the feasibility of creating a State Office of Literacy in Hawaii found no consensus among those interviewed as to whether such an office should be established or what its duties should be. Consequently, the creation of a permanent Governor's Commission on Literacy was recommended instead. Housed within the Office of…

Using interviews, observation, and archival documents, researchers traced the 4-year history of a "freestanding" interorganizational arrangement for school improvement in Santa Clara County (California). Called the "AB 65 Elementary Consortium," the interdistrict collaboration was started in response to California Assembly Bill…

Participants in a conference held by the National Center for Research in Vocational Education discussed the relationship between academic and industry skill standards and reached consensus in several central areas. Arguments for better coordination between academic and technical standards were as follows: integrated skills are needed in new, more…

A study examined the affiliations between adult basic education programs and business, industry, and unions in the 50 States and the District of Columbia. Of the 47 state directors of adult education who returned the mail questionnaire, 31 reported formal affiliations and 5 reported informal affiliations with businesses and/or unions in their…

Resulting from a project involving district, state, and federal educational agencies, the papers in this, the first of two volumes, are intended to provide information from research and practice that can help school districts in their efforts to make decisions about goals and methods of basic skills instruction. The topics of the papers in the…

To investigate the initial experiences of the various Even Start programs in Ohio following approval and funding, a project developed a survey instrument and sent it to Even Start program directors. The survey asked directors open-ended questions aimed at getting a general description of each program and a discussion of the issues and concerns…

To investigate the initial experiences of the various Even Start programs, a project developed a survey that was sent to program coordinators in Ohio. It asked open-ended questions to get descriptions and perceptions of situations that preceded turning point events and the turning point events themselves. Data from eight programs highlighted their…

A comprehensive strategy for allocating New York's resources for combating illiteracy must be adopted. The state's education department must become more active in coordinating literacy education efforts by publishing and circulating a directory of all public, private, and volunteer literacy services currently available. The state education…

This document is designed to introduce practitioners in the United Kingdom's learning and skills sector to the principles and practice of benchmarking. The first section defines benchmarking and differentiates metric, diagnostic, and process benchmarking. The remainder of the booklet details the following steps of the benchmarking process: (1) get…

New recruits who need developmental work to be ready for college-level work often seem to fall into a gap in the military's structure for education. Contrary to what critics portray, research points to a variety of success-oriented developmental education programs. Factors that ensure program success include inclusion of problem solving and…

This set of five digests provides an overview of the issue of attaining excellence in vocational education. The first digest deals with effective schools research, characteristics of effective schools, implications of effective schools research for high school vocational education, and strategies for improving school effectiveness. Covered in the…

Alberta Learning was created in May 1999 to enhance the focus of the government of Alberta, Canada, on lifelong learning and equipping all Albertans with the information and skills needed to live and work in the information age. During its first year of operation, Alberta Learning focused on its core businesses of basic learning, adult learning,…