In 1993, the Governor's Commission on Black Males, chaired by then Delegate Elijah E. Cummings, issued a report that studied the conditions of African-American males in Maryland as they related to employment, health conditions, criminal justice, and education. The Commission provided a "snapshot of the plight of the black males in…

Extensive public concern about the deficiency in basic skills confirmed by a decline in standardized test scores and widespread implementation of a variety of state and local improvement programs indicates an urgent need for national attention to this timely issue. However, a federal testing program or federally-imposed performance standards are…

About half the states in the U.S., either by legislative or administrative action, have moved toward the imposition of statewide performance standards in their elementary and secondary schools. Typically these standards pertain to the basic skills--reading, mathematical computation, and written and oral expression. Almost all of these programs…

This publication highlights statistics showing the progress made during the past quarter-century in educating children with disabilities. It also includes data showing how much more needs to be done to prepare all students with disabilities for a productive and independent future. Part 1 discusses sources of the statistics and the key role of the…

In 1999 Ministers responsible for school education agreed to the new set of "National Goals for Schooling in the Twenty-First Century," with the aim of providing high quality schooling in Australia which would secure for students the necessary knowledge, understanding, skills and values for a productive and rewarding life. As a…

The Education Council Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-62) established the National Education Commission on Time and Learning as an independent advisory body charged to do a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in U.S. schools. Based on its 24-month investigation, the Commission found that American students spend an…

This book on the economics of education is concerned primarily with how and why the student goes about acquiring whatever human capital he or she wishes and how the institutional setting of the university influences the amount of human capital that the student acquires. The learning process is dealt with, and an economic theory of learning, which…

This report describes the status of public education in Texas, as required by Texas law. It contains an executive summary and 14 chapters on the following topics: (1) state performance on the academic-excellence indicators; (2) a summary compilation of overall student performance on the state performance assessments and a study of the correlation…

This guide explains how low-performing schools can become high-achieving ones, using information from studies of Title I schools. It presents practical ideas from these schools and communities as well as the research base behind their success. The nine chapters are (1) "Five Steps to a Good Start" (e.g., help parents understand how children's…

A set of career cluster standards was developed for the school-to-careers division of a large urban school district that is moving toward a career academy model for high school education. The process used to develop the standard was based on a standards development model consisting of the following stages: synthesis; collection of input; and…

In 2004, the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) conducted an assessment of a sample of Year 6 and Year 10 students across Australia to assess their proficiency in civics and citizenship. The assessment of civics and citizenship is part of a national plan that is being put progressively in place to…

To raise vocational completers' academic achievement through school reform, the High Schools That Work (HSTW) network of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) promotes 10 key practices for raising academic achievement. The impact of these key practices was examined in a study of how 424 schools adopted them in the following six clusters:…

This guide for those in the "High Schools That Work" initiative is designed to help teachers use classroom assessment to motivate students to work harder to meet challenging standards; to get students to organize information, make interdisciplinary connections, synthesize new knowledge, and draw conclusions from what they learn; to…

The eight schools profiled in this document are serving different populations, but all of them are closing the achievement gap between low-income, minority, and special needs students and their peers. By trying out innovative new strategies, these schools are blazing a trail for others to follow. They are dispelling the myth that some students can…

This report: (1) investigates the declining state of the educational system in America, as measured by high school student performance in the United States and other countries; (2) identifies specific problem areas; and (3) offers multiple recommendations for improvement. The five major recommendations arrived at appear, respectively, under the…