Today, state education agencies (SEAs) and their leaders face unprecedented demands. What was once a low-profile job of managing federal aid, providing curricular guidance, and ensuring compliance with various legal obligations is now a far more visible and politically fraught task. The new roles required of state education agencies due to the No…

The Education Commission of the States has identified several crucial factors that ensure successful school improvement programs, including political support, pressure for improvement, belief in students' learning ability, high-quality programs, state-level implementation strategies, and adequate resources. State agencies must also promote school…

Introduces four articles based on an Education Commission of the States study that identified political and demographic elements interacting to improve schools and the states' role in the change process. Discusses several conditions critical to developing successful improvement programs, including political, monetary, and technical support. (MLH)

Describes school improvement programs established by universities, state agencies, and school districts. All are based on effective schools' research. (Author/JM)

Diverse low-cost, innovative, and successful state initiatives for school improvement have been developed over the last five years. Generated by public pressures for accountability, many states' increased capacity for policy analysis, and insights gained during 15 years of administering categorical grant programs, the initiatives include: programs…

This document is the Tennessee Board of Regents' (TBR's) second annual report card, which details the accomplishments of the state's public higher education institutions in four areas: student learning, academic programs, faculty productivity, and financial accountability. An overall status report is provided for the entire state system, followed…

This document reprints a series of articles appearing in the Parsippany, New Jersey, "Daily Record" on October 25-30, 1987 and November 9, 1987. The series stresses that the New Jersey special education system has vastly improved from what existed prior to the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act, but that the system still…

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…