Emphasizes that private liberal arts colleges must compensate for declining enrollments by admitting students who are underprepared for college-level work, and discusses financial and attitudinal barriers to doing so. Reviews the problems encountered by Skidmore College and its responses, including its basic writing curriculum, writing lab, and…

Transforming schools into truly egalitarian institutions requires a holistic and integrated approach. Using a robust conception of "equality of condition", we examine key dimensions of equality that are central to both the purposes and processes of education: equality in educational and related resources; equality of respect and recognition;…

Testing can serve an important function in the selective admissions process, but the emphasis should be shifted from measurement to assessment of learning, from people evaluation to program evaluation, and from a concern with aptitude to a concern with accomplishment. Such changes would help testing improve teaching and learning. (Author/JMD)

One essential factor in educational reform is the quality of teacher education candidates. Raising admission standards for students in teacher education programs is one of the most common means of increasing the quality of candidates. This article discusses the pros and cons of teacher and teacher candidate testing. (SM)

This study describes the American system of higher education's distributive mechanism in the practice of selective admission and considers possible changes in that system. Chapter One presents the work's overall approach, a three level analysis of the current system from the viewpoints of the individual student and the individual college as well…

Delineates the political movements and tensions within Austria that thwarted plans for comprehensive schooling and led to a decision in 1982 to abandon the idea of major, structural educational reform. Looks at reasons for the existence of the current selective school system and improvement measures being tried. (JHZ)

In 1991, Massachusetts passed an interdistrict choice law that gave parents the option of enrolling their child in any district they selected. Six years later, David Armor and Brett Peiser conducted a study to examine the social, racial, and financial impact of the choice program on participating districts, and to determine if the thesis behind…

Investigated whether reform in Israel's teacher education admission standards has attracted better students than in the past. Data on students who were freshmen before, during, and after the academization indicated that students who are accepted now have a higher entry level than in previous years, but they represent a similar social and…

This monograph examines preservice teacher education from the perspective of the sociologist. It emphasizes the need for furthering the cause of professionalism among teachers through the acquisition of knowledge, skills, attitudes, beliefs, and orientations of a profession, a process referred to as a socialization system. The publication offers a…

Discusses the causes for the recent decline in higher education quality in sub-Saharan Africa and possible strategies for improvement, including selective admission to the universities, teacher training programs for faculty, student evaluation of faculty, faculty participation in instructional materials development, improvement of graduate study,…

This report to the governor of Montana details higher education recommendations for the 1990s. The document opens with a letter to Governor Stephens from the chairman of the Montana Education Commission for the Nineties and Beyond. An introduction details the establishment of and framework for the Commission. A background section lays out the…

This essay reviews research pertaining to the relative merits and drawbacks of expanding family choice in public education. A primary objective is to identify and explore tensions among competing objectives in the design of expanded choice systems. After an introductory section on goals and definitions, the second section explores how more family…