This handbook is designed to assist Samoan-speaking parents of students residing in California. It is intended to clarify the operation of schools so parents can better support their children's education. The handbook provides basic information on the educational system and policies in question-and-answer format, addressing topics such as:…

The state of Kentucky has recently raised its standards for persons who apply for admission to teacher education. The plan, mandated by the State Board of Education, involves a selection/retention process for candidates who apply for initial admission to the program and for candidates who progress through the program. A minimum level of…

Four annual surveys of the 50 states provide data for analyzing nation-wide trends in competency assessment of teachers. Most state plans for teacher competency assessment include testing one or more areas of basic skills, professional or pedagogical skills, and academic knowledge. The testing occurs at the entry level--admission to the teacher…

This report of the Task Force on Teacher Education in Missouri focuses on producing a high-quality cadre of teachers. The report is organized around three themes: (1) supply and demand of teachers, teacher recruitment, and selective admission; (2) appropriate preservice preparation of teachers with academically rigorous teacher education programs;…

Public concern about the effectiveness of education institutions and the accompanying loss of public confidence in the nation's schools has revealed itself in a growing complaint that too many teachers cannot teach. This criticism, while not fully substantiated, has resulted in efforts to establish means for testing teacher competency, seen as one…

Profiles of 16 public senior institutions in Alabama are divided into three main sections: mission, role, and scope. The sections on mission were written by the institutions, while information on the role of each institution was taken from various data sources, which are identified. The information on scope is limited to the inventory of academic…

A survey was conducted among 489 public colleges in the Southern Regional Education Board states to determine cutting scores for placing students into regular versus remedial college classes. Results indicated a large number and variety of tests in reading, writing, and mathematics--almost 100 combinations of 70 different tests--were used to place…

Profiles of 17 public senior institutions in Alabama are presented as part of an annual report of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education to the Governor and Legislature. The profiles are divided into three main sections: mission, role, and scope. The sections on mission were written by the institutions and were left largely as submitted.…

This is a statistical report on Catholic high school education in the United States. The report builds on two previous reports ("The Catholic High School: A National Portrait," in 1985 and a follow-up study of high school finances in 1986). Data are drawn from a sample of 206 schools stratified on the variables of region and enrollment…

Information is provided on Vocational Appraisal for the Handicapped, a system for the identification and selection of handicapped students who can most benefit from vocational education for handicapped programs. (Career investigation for handicapped persons is offered for seventh and eigth graders; vocational education for the handicapped persons…

This publication is a compilation of papers presented at the "Presidents' Conference on Excellence in Illinois Education." These conference proceedings outline the complex and difficult nature of the educational problems facing the state of Illinois and the nation as a whole. These papers, by presidents of universities in Illinois,…

This manual is designed to assist in the development of displaced homemaker career awareness programs within community settings. Examples are taken from the project, Expanding New Horizons, targeted at low-income and minority displaced homemakers. The first two sections offer guidelines for recruitment and for selection of a community facility. In…

When properly understood, scores on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) support the hypothesis that the performance of American students as measured by the SAT is steadily improving. As the overall pool of SAT takers increases and as pressures to adopt SAT scores as an administrative measure of instructional performance mount, SAT averages at the…

A national survey of Master's programs for teachers of English as a Second Language (N=63) found that significant numbers of non-native-speakers (NNSs) are enrolled in these programs. The survey questions were presented in five areas: (1) numbers of students and native language/culture backgrounds; (2) admissions requirements; (3) academic needs;…

This guide to Spanish language proficiency standards is intended to aid the University of Minnesota's staff in developing curricula and tests for the university's language courses, and to help foreign language teachers outside the university understand the university's language programs. The standards are geared toward the language skills expected…