The back-to-basics movement and public demands for educational quality guarantees have led state education agencies (SEA's) to examine their options in four areas: definition of the basics, relevant curricular and programming alternatives, alternatives for evaluating achievement of basics-related goals, and methods of reporting achievements to the…

This set of five digests provides an overview of the issue of attaining excellence in vocational education. The first digest deals with effective schools research, characteristics of effective schools, implications of effective schools research for high school vocational education, and strategies for improving school effectiveness. Covered in the…