The National Commission on Secondary Vocational Education was formed in January 1984 to examine the role and function of secondary vocational education. During its deliberations, the commission addressed the following areas of concern: perceptions of vocational education, access, equity, curriculum, vocational education teacher recruitment and…

Conference papers are clustered into three major categories: background--the past and future; current issues in rural and small school education; and individual and group roles in rural and small school education. Papers in the first category provide an overview of the basic changes in rural education, project a picture of rural education in the…

In a climate of increasing enrollment, reduced funding, and unfunded mandated state and federal programs, urban and rural school districts find it increasingly difficult to attract and retain qualified teachers. This paper offers suggestions to local school boards and district administrators in states with significant numbers of rural schools: (1)…

The papers contained in this document represent the keynote addresses, refereed and non-refereed conference papers from the 21st National Conference of the Society for the Provision of Education in Rural Australia (SPERA). The theme for this national annual conference was: Our Stories: Innovation and Excellence in Rural Education. Keynote…

This 23rd annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1997 (IDEA) discusses the progress of students with disabilities. It includes a number of modules reporting on the results of the National Assessment. Section 1 includes five modules that present statereported data on high school gradation…

This 22nd annual report to Congress on the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1997 (IDEA) begins with a special preface reflecting on the progress made in the 25 years since the initial passage of the law. Following the preface, Section 1 examines contextual and environmental factors such as the role of minority…

The focus of the Forum's eleventh Study Group report is assessing what it will take for the state to respond to the court's findings in the decade-old Leandro lawsuit, a suit that challenged, among other things, the constitutionality of the state's current system of financing schools. The essence of the court's ruling is that: The state, as judged…

This monograph presents a collection of papers that focus on excellence in teacher education and examine questions which are critical to the reform of curriculum and pedagogy. The 10 chapters are: (1) "Using a Multi-Dimensional Web Site for Physics Instruction" (James P. Downing and Ruwang Sung); (2) "College Algebra Reform:…

This report presents proceedings from a conference on teacher quality held in Washington, DC in January 2000. Sessions focused on recruitment; teacher preparation; beginning teacher support; college-school partnerships; minority group teachers; Hispanic and language minority teachers; preparing teachers at the community college level; curricular…

A growing number of American students are nonnative English speakers. These students are vulnerable to early school exit and schools are facing more and more such students each year. Presently, about 56% of all public school teachers in the United States have at least one English language learner (ELL) student in their class, but less than 20% of…

Research has documented that vocational education and training (VET) is critical to Malaysia's industrial development. Rapid technological changes and increased global competition have exacerbated the challenges associated with delivery of quality VET in Malaysia. The barriers to improving VET in Malaysia and ways of overcoming those barriers,…

Every American public-school system has abundant reason for making sharp analyses of the peculiar needs to which it should be ministering; yet, in practice, the kind of training provided by the schools of one section is very similar to that given by the schools of other regions, though it must be apparent that occupations may differ widely.…

Because of the increased interest in and current publicity given to the problems of agricultural migrant workers and their families, there has been a growing concern in the Nation regarding the lack of educational opportunities offered to migrant children. Since the programs for the education of children of migrant workers vary from State to…