The proceedings of the Western Conference on External Degree Programs held in San Francisco, February 17-19, 1974, are presented. The keynote address discusses strategies for educational innovation, while two other speeches discuss the stresses of universalism and an interim conference report. Notes and questions from small group discussions, the…

Under the sponsorship of the National Science Foundation, 22 urban school districts have been involved in a long-term educational reform through the Urban Systemic Initiative (USI) program since 1994. This paper presents a brief summary of findings regarding best policies and practices in the educational reform effort focusing on student…

This paper explores how the Women's Studies Center (Centro de Estudios de la Mujer, CEM), a feminist, women-led nongovernmental organization (NGO), is contributing to socio-cultural change in Chile 11 years after the country's democratic transition. CEM merges the theoretical and the practical, and the personal and the political through education…

This paper studies successful African American students' perception of their mathematics education, mathematics knowledge, and their interaction with peers. Two female and four male participants attending the same southern four-year university completed courses in calculus 1, 2, and 3. Data was gathered using interviews, surveys, exemplary teacher…

The purpose of the study described in this paper was to determine the facilitators and barriers teachers in middle-school mathematics classrooms faced when trying to implement equity and reform objectives. The study is set in the context of the Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI) in Ohio known as Project Discovery. In 1995, a major evaluation of…

This study involved over 4,000 third grade students in a large (90,000+) suburban-emerging-urban school district. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of curriculum alignment on student achievement in mathematics as measured by the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills (IOWA) after one year of implementation in the DeKalb County School…

One of the most significant issues facing colleges and universities today is the growing need for lifelong learning and for coherent strategies to serve the adult learner. The Commission on Higher Education and the Adult Learner has outlined five priorities for adult education that demand attention and action: (1) occupational maintenance,…

Research has provided rich documentation of knowledge on variables that are related to gender and mathematics. Moderate change in what has happened with females in mathematics education has occurred partly because of this scholarship. This paper discusses the research on mathematics and gender and the need to continue research that documents the…

This transcription of a lecture delivered by Rod Paige provides a discussion of the future plans for American education. After an introduction by Phillip N. Truluck, Executive Vice President of the Heritage Foundation, Paige uses the following topic headings to direct his talk: (1) The Education Revolution; (2) Improving Accountability and…

Reports on the evaluation of an advocacy program to promote preschool education for Arab children in Israel. Used a quasi-experimental repeated-measures design to assess outcomes through collection of archival data for 10 years in 45 Arab towns. Findings indicate the success of the program. (SLD)

This paper argues that the texts, conversations, writings, and professional activities that construct our understanding of leadership come from an embedded, privileged perspective that has largely ignored issues of status, gender, and race. This perspective insidiously perpetuates a view of leadership that discourages diversity and equity. Two…

Educational reform efforts have led to increased use of alternatives to the traditional binary-scored multiple choice item. Many stimuli employed by these alternative assessments yield complex responses that require complex scoring rules. Some of these new item types can be polytomously-scored. Differential item functioning (DIF) assessment is a…

In 1966, James Coleman's massive American schooling survey concluded that family background was principally associated with the existing inequities in cognitive achievement. Coleman's conclusion about schooling's minimal influence on academic performance violated an educational consciousness viewing school as the "great equalizer." Two…

Biases based on gender and ethnicity in computer software available to schools were investigated in this study. A random sample of 15 software programs were selected and evaluated on the bases of gender and ethnicity. Data were gathered on the number of male and female characters portrayed and on the cross-cultural dimensions of the software in…

The women's rights movement has brought American education to a crucial point of testing. Will the schools remain passive agents of social control or can they actively prepare those who seek self-direction? The speaker, professor of history and philosophy of education, George Peabody College for Teachers, Nashville, Tennessee, discusses two issues…