Presenters at the State of the States Roundtable session at the 2014 National Education Finance Conference in Louisville were invited to submit their papers for publication. These papers address the following topics: (1) State issues affecting P-12 and/or higher education funding; (2) Funding priorities/trends for P-12 and/or higher education; (3)…

In February 2015 a large group of scholars, researchers, and practitioners interested in P-20 finance issues gathered in St. Louis, Missouri, for the National Education Finance Academy's annual conference, on February 25-27, 2015 to discuss, among multiple topics, the state of P-20 finance in all 50 states. There were 35 states represented in the…

Presenters at the State of the States Roundtable session at the 2014 National Education Finance Conference in Louisville were invited to submit their papers for publication. These papers address the following topics: (1) State issues affecting P-12 and/or higher education funding; (2) Funding priorities/trends for P-12 and/or higher education; (3)…

Educational policy issues must be seen as statements of intention, with the practice issues of accountability kept separate. Accountability should not be juxtaposed to school improvement. Instead, accountability should be defined broadly as doing the things that improve practice so that the intended results can be achieved. If there is no balance…

Three separate studies were designed to provide information on the alignment of norm-referenced achievement test items in language arts to Nebraska's content standards at grades 4, 8, and 11. The information was used to evaluate the alignment of the tests to the standards as well as compare that alignment across the five tests. There were 20…

Project Accommodate, a program designed to improve inservice to regular Nebraska secondary teachers serving handicapped students, is described. The state's needs for inservice training to implement the goal of providing services in the least restrictive environment are discussed as background to Project Accommodate's development. Goals of the…

The state of Nebraska has adopted a unique approach to statewide reporting that requires school districts to develop district-level assessments of the state student content standards or district standards comparable in quality and to report the results to the state and public. This system allows districts to base their assessments on what they are…

As the first step in a district energy conservation program, the Blair (Nebraska) Community School District installed a load programmer in 1980 to control power usage in the 144,000 square foot junior-senior high school. The cost of the load programmer was less that $8,500, including installation, and during the initial year of operation, the…

Women have comprised a declining percentage of public school administrators since 1928 when 55 percent of all elementary principals were female. A heretofore unchallenged reason for this decline has been the assumption that women lack geographic mobility and that consequently neither they themselves nor potential employers should consider them…

This report presents information on compulsory education. Data were collected through a review of literature, a telephone survey of state Department of Education personnel, and interviews with South Dakota state Department of Education personnel. The document reviews trends in legislation pertaining to compulsory education in the United States and…

The paper provides guidelines for establishing and operating teacher aide programs in special education. Chapter I considers legal aspects of using paraprofessionals with emphasis on the stance of the Nebraska Professional Practices Commission. A second chapter outlines the roles and duties of teachers and aides, offers sample job descriptions for…

Many states use a statewide assessment strategy to evaluate districts on common measures. Because districts in Nebraska are not measured on common instruments, comparisons of district performance are difficult. The accountability model described in this paper contains three components related to school district performance on academic content…

Although technology education has been discussed for a decade, it is still uncertain how teachers feel about this new curriculum. Industrial technology education teachers from Idaho and Nebraska were randomly surveyed about their acceptance of technology education. A questionnaire was sent to a sample of 73 teachers in Nebraska and 58 teachers in…

This study attempted to identify school district factors that contributed to variation in aggregate levels of student achievement in reading and mathematics. A number of independent variables were used to attempt to identify district level factors that impacted aggregate levels of student achievement. These included measures of pupil-teacher…

This paper describes the Entry Year Assistance Program (EYAP), a mentoring program for novice teachers, offered by the School of Education at Chadron State College (Nebraska). The program supports beginning teachers who are geographically isolated in Nebraska's panhandle. A discussion of the theoretical basis for teacher mentoring includes…