This circular outlines the inclusion policy of the Pennsylvania Department of Education. Inclusion is defined as a combination of long-standing "least restrictive environment" policies, with an emphasis on active social membership in the class or community, but not representing a legal requirement that every child be educated in the same…

During 1993, various teachers and schools in Indiana were recognized for high achievement with awards called "Bellringers," for educational efforts that truly "ring the bell." This "report card" documents the activities of the Indiana Department of Education for the 1992-1993 school year. The first section offers an…

This response by the Virginia Department of Education to House Joint Resolution No. 118 of the General Assembly of Virginia, which requested the Department of Education to study initiatives to advance computer-assisted instruction, is based on input from state and national task forces and on a 1986 survey of 80 Viriginia school divisions. The…

This Alaska State Department of Education report on the school year 1976-77 briefly describes state boards and commissions, developments in the office of the commissioner, and the current status of programs in management, law, finance, educational program support, vocational rehabilitation, and the state libraries and museums. Information on…

This booklet is an inventory of selected state plans and programs in career education. It is not intended to be a complete and comprehensive guide; rather, it is designed to be illustrative, to be expanded and elaborated upon as needed. The authors focus on each state separately, discussing philosophy and programs. Appendixes I and II categorize a…

In the introduction to this collection of papers, William Drummond summarizes the national conference proceedings and personal reactions to them. Chapter 1, "The Revolution Explosion," is a talk by Frankie Beth Nelson about the way an anthropologist looks at the school and its purposes. Chapter 2 (SP 002 631), "Student Teaching: The State of the…

Accountability currently is an important concept throughout education. Michigan has assumed leadership among the States in exploring and applying accountability procedures. The purpose of this report is to examine the quality and implications of that leadership. Specifically, the authors' purpose is to assess the Michigan Accountability System…

The number of children and youth identified with autism has grown exponentially over the past decade and a half. During 1992-93 (the first required reporting year for the category of autism) only 7,168 students with autism ages 6-21 were served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (U.S. Department of Education, 1994). This…

State education agencies are organizing and developing programs that increasingly recognize the difference between the following types of state education productivity systems: (1) distributing money for productivity in education to be defined and implemented at the local level within "state minimum standards" regulated by the state…

Describes two Arkansas and Maryland elementary schools--studied by the Education Commission of the States--that developed effective instructional improvement programs despite minimal budget and staff. Concludes that state education agencies can significantly improve schools through training programs that transcend traditional teacher-administrator…

The Federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) both emphasize the need for students with disabilities to have appropriate instructional and statewide assessment accommodations to ensure access to the general curriculum and to be included in school, district, and state accountabilities…

This document presents three different views of accountability to address state needs as their departments of education design, improve, or review their state accountability and reporting systems. The first of three sections presents the system-design decision process as a linear sequence of ten steps from defining the purposes of the…

Describes the operations and procedures of the Florida Educational Resources Information Center, which is an expansion and renovation made possible by a federal grant of the Vocational Research and Evaluation Information Center of the Florida Department of Education. (JM)

Kentucky's systemic reform initiative has been heralded as one of the more comprehensive and well-sustained reforms in recent history. To evaluate the course of this reform, the challenges associated with researching and evaluating a statewide systemic reform effort are detailed here. By using a description of the politics of evaluating systemic…