Early childhood educators are justifiably concerned that demands for academic standards in preschool will result in developmentally inappropriate instruction that focuses on a narrow set of isolated skills. But Ms. Stipek believes that teaching preschoolers basic skills can give them a good foundation for their school careers, and she shows that…

This review of recent research on minimum competency testing requirements focuses on the impact of such requirements on school curricula and on the processes of selecting which competencies are to be tested, determining cutoff scores, and ensuring test validity and reliability. (JBM)

The author briefly discusses ten of the important events in education during the last decade. (IRT)

Summarizes findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on reading, mathematics, science, writing, high and low achievers, race, types of schools, and geographic regions and affirms the potential of American education to solve its own problems with government assistance at the federal level. (JBM)

This position paper denounces what the author considers to be an increasing and excessive reliance on computers and technological advancements generally as panaceas for educational and social problems whose real resolution demands the skills of "citizens with a basic liberal arts education" rather than those of technocrats. (JBM)

Examining the history of a "promotion by achievement" program begun in 1973-74 in Greensville County, Virginia, the authors argue that the effects of the program were not racially discriminatory as alleged by a 1980 suit that led to the program's termination in 1981. (JBM)

Reviews the contributions of alternative schools to public education over the past decade and predicts diversity and success for the movement in the 1980s. (WD)

Discusses ten principles, evolving from the authors' experiences at South Boston High School, that form the core of a new view of schooling and its relation to the society it serves. (Author/WD)