"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) House Subcommittee Passes Education Funding Bill: Overall Education Spending Essentially Flat, Striving Readers…

Developed by the TECHlinx Workforce Education Clearinghouse project, this catalog is designed to assist work force educators in identifying and acquiring materials related to their information needs. Many of the listed resources are available directly from TECHlinx; some may be obtained from other clearinghouses, publishers, agencies, and…

The practicum reported here addressed the difficulty some newly-immigrated Spanish-speaking, limited-English-proficient high school students experience in adjusting to a new culture, putting them at risk of dropping out of school. A program was designed for this population in a suburban high school with a substantial and increasing immigrant…

This book provides an overview of a 4-year longitudinal study of senior secondary schooling in the government high schools of New South Wales, Australia. The study followed the progress from year 9 to year 12 of 3,000 students from 22 government secondary schools in 2 metropolitan and 2 nonmetropolitan regions. The book is divided into 10…

This practicum sought to understand why students in a Diversified Cooperative Training (DCT) program did not see the need to earn good grades or to complete their high school education. One hundred DCT programs were surveyed statewide, and it was found that 66 percent reported problems with attendance, 35 percent revealed problems with student…

This report contains recommendations for providing for the health needs of all school-age children in Missouri through health services in the public schools that are designed to detect problems, reduce absenteeism, and reduce the failure or dropout rate. An implementation plan described in opening sections includes five components: (1)…

An at-risk profile instrument was developed for identification and service delivery for high risk students to identify students in a timely manner so that intervention could occur on a proactive, rather than reactive, basis; and to assist school district personnel to implement, monitor, and modify programmatic and staffing patterns to best meet…

This document completes a series of four monographs that comprise a framework for describing children's development through the school years. Each monograph incorporates insights gained through research and practice. As a resource designed primarily for teachers, administrators, and curriculum designers, the document looks at the whole child as a…

This document describes the With and For Parents program, a dropout prevention program focusing on parent involvement. Although not a conventional guidebook, this document can serve as a guide to the world of the urban disadvantaged through its recollection of program experiences. With and For Parents began in 1987 with 156 families of incoming…

The ALANA (Asian, Latin, African, and Native American) Mentoring Program was established at Saint Clair County Community College, in Port Huron, Michigan, to address the identity issues facing ALANA freshmen through peer mentoring. Mentors provide social and academic support, support students in thinking critically and role playing, and directly…

Educational practices in tracking and ability grouping are reviewed, and it is suggested that cooperative learning strategies are effective alternatives for students who need preparation for the challenges of citizenship in the future. Research studies have given rise to many criticisms of tracking, particularly as it relates to minorities,…

The Commission on Vocational Education and Career Opportunities in the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) studied vocational education and career preparation activities in the DCPS and explored strategies for improving them. The study established that DCPS is failing to fulfill its career preparation mission. The problems of too many…

The Culebra Road GED/JOBS (General Educational Development/Job Opportunities and Basic Skills) class provides recipients of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) with remedial academic instruction, job preparedness training, and training in parenting skills. At the suggestion of one of its students, the class undertook a project that…

Reasons why some students complete further education (FE) and others drop-out were examined in a study involving a sample of 9,000 students and staff from 31 inner city, urban, and rural FE colleges throughout the United Kingdom. Data were collected from the following sources: interviews with FE college managers, staff, and students; review of…

A study was done to evaluate Partners for Valued Youth (PVY), an instructional cross-age tutoring program in San Antonio (Texas) designed to reduce dropout rates among Hispanic limited-English proficient (LEP) middle-school children, who are at risk of leaving school. The program has these students tutor younger, elementary school students. The…