This book offers instructions for school principals, assistant principals, teachers, and district-level administrators for building a comprehensive accountability system that focuses on leadership skills. It presents recommendations for assessing and nurturing teacher performance, setting up balanced assessment and accountability policies, and…

The size and adequacy of the federal workforce for carrying out scientific, technical, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) activities are ongoing concerns in many policy circles. Experts both inside and outside of government have voiced fears that this workforce is aging and may soon face a dwindling labor pool, a problem that could be compounded…

The New Mexico Dropout Report is published annually to provide information for educators, parents, legislators, and other interested parties on the status of education in New Mexico. This report describes the extent and nature of the school dropout dilemma in the state, providing information on the numbers and percentages of dropouts by grade,…

This study investigated the experiences and behavior of eight African American students participating in an experimental Arabic second language course in an inner city middle school. Data were drawn from student and teacher journals and two videotaped class sessions, one in an early stage and one in a late stage of the two-semester course.…

This guide provides information about the U.S. Department of Education's latest initiatives, updates specific programs for schools and teachers, and lists services and resources. The introductory section provides information on the Department's seven priorities as outlined in President Clinton's fifth State of the Union Address, on President…

Australia's National Reporting System (NRS) was developed as a mechanism for reporting the outcomes of adult English language, literacy, and numeracy provision in the country's vocational educational and training system, labor market programs, and the adult and community education sector. This document is intended to explain the NRS to potential…

The Equipped for the Future (EFF) framework describes adult performance along these four dimensions: structure of the knowledge-base; fluency of performance; independence of performance; and range of conditions for performance. When completed it will include a developmental sequence of descriptions of learner performance for each EFF standard;…

This paper examines effects of public funding for religious and private schools in the Netherlands and England over the last century. These two countries were chosen because both have religious schools fully funded by the state. The paper shows that state funding has disadvantages and advantages. Funding has been associated with considerable, yet…

The context of school district governance is changing and becoming more complex. The individual roles of school board members and superintendents, and the relationship between school board members and superintendents are becoming increasingly important in light of the recent mandates for high student achievement. This brief looks at issues…

Young children develop science knowledge as they observe and act on the world, asking questions, making predictions, testing those predictions, and reflecting on their experiences. This book offers guidance in integrating inquiry-based science into the early childhood curriculum, focusing on content and providing examples of the work of children…

Skills For Life, since 2001 the United Kingdom's national adult basic skills strategy, aims to improve literacy, numeracy, or English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) skills among people over the age of 16. Basic skills programs may be full- or part-time and are delivered in colleges, community venues, neighborhood learning centers, adult…

This book presents an overview of the different policy approaches to educational disadvantage and equity within the Australian public school system. It highlights two general trends: the shift toward school-based management and funding approaches increasingly directed toward reading and mathematics achievement. More specifically, the book: (1)…

An intrinsic part of the transition to a modern market economy in Hungary has been the restructuring of the vocational education and training (VET) system. A positive side effect of the socioeconomic transition is the emergence of human resources development (HRD). The transition process has been successful in the school-based education system,…

This document details the position of the Further Education Development Agency (FEDA) regarding 21 issues included in a recent initiative to introduce compulsory initial teaching qualifications into further education (FE) and the requirement that such qualifications should meet national standards. The following are among the positions taken by the…

Vocational education and training (VET) in 10 Central and Eastern European countries--Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, and Slovenia--was examined. The analysis focused on the following issues: socioeconomic context of VET reforms; VET at the start of reforms; the European Union Phare…