"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Saving Futures, Saving Dollars": Five Percent Increase in Male Graduation Rate Could Lead to Savings of $8…

This article contends that a new concept of education finance has emerged in response to substantial alterations in the U.S. education policy environment. The major distinction between modern and old is that the latter was principally concerned with arrangements of inputs in K-12 schooling. The former, modern-era education finance, is concerned…

A prospective study investigating pragmatic transfer in the learning of Japanese as a third language (L3) is described. The study will test the hypothesis that the learner's perception of linguistic and cultural distance between the first/second languages (L1/L2) and L3 will determine conscious and unconscious decisions about which linguistic and…

This report presents results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1994 trend assessments in science, mathematics, reading, and writing. To provide a numeric summary to students' performance on the assessments, the NAEP used a 0 to 500 scale for each subject area. Comparisons of average scale scores are provided across the…

Changes that have been made in reporting and disseminating information from the National Assessment of Educational Progress are discussed, focusing on those changes brought about by the first Trial State Assessment (TSA). The TSA collected data on the mathematics performance of students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in public and private schools in 40…

This study examined the differential effects of a course-based treatment (i.e., students' direct application of reading strategies to their own college texts) versus a content-based treatment (i.e., student application of reading strategies to texts provided in the reading class) on various measures of student achievement and psychological…

A 400-item questionnaire was designed to provide information on two outstanding research questions: whether a describable Hispanic culture exists in the United States, and if so, what special cultural characteristics should be taken into account in identifying and educating Hispanic exceptional students. English and Spanish versions of the…

This paper identifies two broad types of "critical" ethnographic research. One type attempts to empower social actors by providing emic-oriented accounts which tend to emphasize the integrity of their constructs, thus laying the groundwork for a redistribution of social power. The other type attempts to combine analysis of phenomenal, micro-level…

Building on previous investigations of the effects of team-organized instructional arrangements on elementary school teachers' sense of autonomy, this report reexamines data from 14 multiunit schools which still retained the team instructional plan at the end of the second year of implementation. Indicators measured were interdependent teaching…

This guide is intended to assist states and service delivery areas (SDAs) in addressing the new oversight responsibilities and opportunities stipulated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) with respect to net impact evaluations. It is divided into two main parts. The first part, which deals with issues in evaluating costs and benefits,…

A statistical profile of the salaries, rank, and representation of women and men full-time faculty in universities and colleges in Canada is presented. Data from "Statistics Canada" for the academic years 1972-73, 1975-76, and 1977-78 were used in the comparative analysis. Between 1972-73 and 1977-78, women remained a minority…

The state of the art of behavioral instruction and examples of successful implementation of behaviorally-based college teaching are provided in this book. In Chapter 1, the Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) is covered, including a discussion of the problems inherent in traditional teaching methods that led to the development of personalized…

This paper examines research concerned with the definition, development, and effects of curriculum. Ten aspects of current curriculum scholarship are examined. The first three (the state of the field, the scope of the field, and the revolt against scientism and rationality) concern curriculum study as a whole. Despite the assessment that the field…

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF GEOGRAPHIC AND SCHOOL MOBILITY IN AREAS OF HIGH AND LOW DELINQUENCY RATE IS REPORTED. THE HIGH DELINQUENCY GROUP CONSISTED OF 373 ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN YOUTH DEVELOPMENT PROJECT TARGET AREAS AND THE LOW DELINQUENCY GROUP WAS MADE UP OF 425 CHILDREN FROM OTHER PARTS OF MINNEAPOLIS. DATA GATHERED FROM SCHOOL AND POLICE…

The way that Open University students study technology (T100) and social science (D101) foundation courses was investigated using an inventory developed at Lancaster University. A comparison of study approaches of Open University and conventional university students, and data derived from student interviews were analyzed. The Lancaster inventory,…