This report was prepared in response to requests by Senators Specter and Kennedy for information regarding charter schools. It presents data on the following: the number of charter schools approved under state law; characteristics of charter-school instructional programs; factors for school autonomy; accountability mechanisms; and the challenges…

The human service functions of community colleges are extremely diverse, and few are common to all institutions; however, community colleges share certain characteristics which distinguish them from other organizations providing human services. Among these is the degree to which colleges must interact with and be influenced by the laws and…

Federal legislation requires mental health centers to establish quality assurance programs which seek to maintain or improve the quality of a center's health care services. Three general measures of quality are: (1) input standards for staff and the setting providing care; (2) process standards for the quality of treatment; and (3) outcome…

The West German debate over state-controlled higher education planning versus market-oriented competition is examined in the context of recent West German educational history, actions taken by the federal government and science council, institutional reactions, and research on the use of performance indicators. (MSE)

Seven weaknesses of accreditation are described: long intervals between site visits, automatic accreditation of branches, weak penalties, inadequate public disclosure, inadequate enforcement, leadership shortcomings, and problems with program evaluation. (Author/MLW)

Since a new federal policy for higher education may be formulated soon, the author notes that federal policy is necessarily political with the government having to weigh competing claims for its limited resources. Higher education, therefore, has a responsibility to unite in formulating its own policy that will be in the best interests of society.…

Displays findings from a fall 2002 survey of all states to determine how they were progressing in meeting No Child Left Behind Act's list of requirements. Generally, states and local districts are stronger developing accountability systems but a significant gap remains between the federal law's demands and the capacity to meet them. (Author/MLF)

Accountability of higher education institutions is discussed in the context of recent criticism of the institutional accreditation system. It is suggested that institutions reevaluate their responsibilities and reaffirm appropriate core values; however, application of those values will be influenced by the principal clients: students, employers,…

Charter schools are publicly financed schools that are governed by teachers, parents, administrators, or others who want to create and manage an innovative public school. This document briefly defines charter schools and provides an overview of their history. It also discusses the stance toward charter schools taken by President Clinton, who…

This paper examines the issues arising when a set of federally funded model demonstration projects, the secondary curricula/student transition projects of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, were obligated by federal initiative to improve the amount, quality, and use of evaluation. These issues included: (1) the nature of…

Institutional self-study is an appropriate method for determining quality and demonstrating accountability which can lead to academic and administrative excellence. With a trend toward state and federal government involvement in higher education, colleges will do well to conduct internal program assessments in order to maintain control. A…

This issue of the quarterly newsletter of the Institute for Research on Educational Finance and Governance contains five articles summarizing five papers on the regulation of education that were originally presented at the institute's Law and Education Seminar. Each summary was written by the author of the original paper. David Kirp's article…

Based on the premises that there is a legitimate federal role in education, that federal education programs need to be simplified, that federal aid must pass through states to the local school districts, and that state and local agencies should be accountable for using federal resources, this paper offers specifications to suggest ways to…

This article describes a model developed by the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, Office of Children and Youth, Bureau of Child Development Programs for the evaluation of its child day care programs. The evaluation effort has two phases. The first phase, the Child Development Program Evaluation (CDPE) was designed to provide a…

The protection of the student and prospective student at the postsecondary level is examined. Twenty-five possible educational abuses and concerns, such as discriminatory refund policies and misrepresentation, identified by the Federal Interagency on Education are listed. Ten issues selected as the thrust of the first National Conference on…