However feasible or easy it is to do minimum competency testing, the difficult task will be to defend doing it. (Author)

The Modesto plan includes basic skills competency standards in the K-8 grades and competency-based high school graduation. (IRT)

Ten basic mathematical skill areas are identified in order to enable educators to provide more effective leadership and direction in implementing and evaluating basic mathematics programs. (JT)

Describes a New York City program, the Adaptive Learning Environments Model (ALEM), that successfully provided academically at-risk students instruction in regular classroom settings. The program achieved remarkable results, but, due to state policies, it was discontinued in 1983. (MD)

Discusses the problem of illiteracy and offers the philosophy for children program as an antidote. This program encourages and assists children in paying attention to their own and others' ideas. It is a thinking skills program that has demonstrated its ability to improve children's basic skills. (JOW)

The schools cannot assume that they can do for children what home and church and other segments of society are unwilling or unable to do. (Author/IRT)

Colorado now requires applicants for teaching certificates to pass a basic skills test in spelling, English language usage, and mathematics and to demonstrate acceptable speaking ability. Student teachers must also complete this screening. Applicants have four chances to complete the test. (MLF)

Current calls for a return to basic education may seem like a rerun from the 1950s and early 1960s, but there are important differences. (Author)

If the basics are used as vehicles for teaching students to think, for developing their intellectual powers, and hence for preparing them effectively for their futures, they merit their central position in the schools. (Author)

Outlines the Council for Basic Education's leadership and goals. (IRT)

Describes a program--"Academic Expectations and the Fourth R: Responsibility"--and its major elements. Outlines nine principles on which it is based and how it has affected students. (RK)

The back to basics movement, coupled with fiscal conservatism, does not necessarily mean a cut in the media budget. (STS)

The aesthetic response is indispensable to all experience, and instruction in the aesthetic response is both possible and necessary. (DD)

Another reviewer of E. D. Hirsch's new book, "Cultural Literacy," criticizes the book's concepts and points out that a better title might be "Cultural Literacy: How Good Ideas Go Wrong." (MD)

A conceptual alternative to intelligence tests is presented, consisting of assessment of a student's performance on defined criteria with known relevance to school learning. Eleven tests were developed that represent learning in three broad domains: information processing, language, and mathematics. Results of assessment can be interpreted…