This study examined how eight rural, high-impact Minnesota school districts (defined as those losing or gaining a high percentage of student population due to school-choice implementation in fiscal year 1995) responded to school choice policy. Data from semistructured interviews with each district's superintendent were sorted and analyzed. In each…

This book presents an assessment of collective bargaining in education. During the 1970's, while student enrollment declined, organizations representing public school teachers grew. Both the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers more than doubled their membership. Teacher contracts have expanded to include areas…

A strategy to establish a research agenda and critical policy questions in postsecondary education finance are considered. Three steps in preparing agendas are the development of a statistical or factual overview of recent developments, the review of appropriate approaches and their relevance to the issues to be researched, and consideration of…

The purpose of this topical review is to present Educational Policy Reform Research Institute's (EPRRI's) state-level qualitative findings collected during in depth interviews in the four core study states of California, Maryland, New York, and Texas. The data presented reflect the perspectives of state-level personnel who were involved with the…

The federal government has been collecting, analyzing, and disseminating educational statistics for more than 130 years. Over time the focus has shifted from data gathering to research and development (R&D) to find more effective ways of educating children. Educational research and development, however, has not been held in high esteem by most…

This report describes a 2-day meeting of experts to identify and discuss the ramifications of inclusive school system proposals on the management, administration, delivery, and effectiveness of education programs and services for children with disabilities and to initiate development of a national action plan to address the issues. The policy…

This paper suggests specific changes in Chapter 1 legislation (up for reauthorization in the fall of 1993) to make it more responsive not only to schools and students, but also to current school restructuring initiatives and new understandings of teaching, learning, and assessment. Recommendations are made in the areas of greater equity in access…

A study examined the relationship between economic growth and compulsory education, vocational education and training, higher education, and the education and training of managers in Great Britain in the period between 1944 and 1988. Deficiencies in language and mathematical skills were found among completers of compulsory education, participants…

Data analyzed in this study are drawn from varied sources including documents provided by governments in the context of the World Bank's operational activity. The data on a basic set of indicators were assembled for a core of 11 Asian countries (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Sri…

This document reports on a National Association for Foreign Students Field Service symposium organized to discuss future directions for research and information management in the field of foreign educational systems, especially in relation to student evaluation for purposes of college admission. Participants included representatives from…

This monograph investigates issues related to the financial support of rural schools. The first section describes various state formulas and the methods used to distribute funds to rural schools. It considers questions about the adequacy of funding adjustments based on sparsity and the relationship of such adjustments to equal educational…

Uses of assessment in postsecondary education and policy issues are considered. In higher education, assessment is used to refer to at least six separate but overlapping activities: (1) multiple measures to track students' intellectual and personal growth over an extended period of time; (2) state-mandated requirements for evaluating students…

Cultural biases about rural schools and people have influenced rural education, public policies, and distribution of funds away from areas where they are most needed. Policymakers have regarded the rural school's condition (sparsity, isolation, smallness, limited economic base) in negative terms, resulting in public policies that ignored,…

The Michigan Assessment Program was proposed and designed to provide an improved information base for research and planning. Its assumptions were that education is an important investiment in human welfare, both school and non-school inputs influence educational performance, educational services are inequitably distributed, and resources available…

While significant progress has occurred over the past several years regarding the expansion of the quantity and quality of after-school opportunities, the ambitious idea of "after-school for all" remains a distant goal. In this commentary, we push beyond some of the numbers to take a close look at questions related to access and equity,…