Standards-based reform is a strategy that includes specifying what is to be learned, devising tests to measure learning, and establishing consequences of performance for students and schools. Popular support remains strong for standards-based reform, according to national polling data as well as local data in the states implementing this strategy.…

This state plan explains how South Dakota intends to comply with Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in the three fiscal years, 1996-1998. Federal requirements, state standards, the state plan, and specific policies and procedures are presented for each of the following provisions of the law: (1) Right to Education Policy…

Historical studies have tended to take a simplistic view of minority groups as passive victims of an oppressive and racist public school system. This book looks at Mexican Americans as active agents in history and documents their quest for educational equality in Texas--a state notorious for its record of inferior and separate schooling for…

This collection of 12 essays is drawn from a May 1990 panel meeting in Paris, France in conjunction with a joint United Nations University/United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization project on "The Changing Role of the Universities." Papers are grouped into those on: the general role of the university, regional…

Latinos are among the nation's most educationally disadvantaged and economically disenfranchised groups. Addressing this reality within the context of a rapidly changing economy and society, this book links educational practice and the structural dimensions that shape institutional life. Sections focus on the political economy of schooling,…

Current research literature on the education of language minority students in the United States is reviewed as it relates to the Bilingual Education Act of 1994 (Title VII of the Improving America's Schools Act). The review specifically examines these areas of concern: language diversity in the United States; limited English skills, poverty, and…

This paper is a call to meet new challenges to ensure equal opportunity for historically African American colleges and universities. The paper suggests an inter-institutional effort among members of the National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education that begins internally and then moves beyond the institutions into the public…

This report traces the history of the collection of programs for disadvantaged students known as the TRIO programs and federal student financial aid policies, and finds that national efforts to equalize college opportunities have been losing ground for the past 15 years. The report cites, for example, a study showing that in 1994 a student from a…

As part of a symposium on issues related to diversity and American education reform in the context of Goal 3 of the National Education Goals, this paper addresses the diversity of Hispanic populations in the United States and implications for Goal 3. Seven factors to consider in program planning include the following: heterogeneity of the Hispanic…

Concerned that most of the education reform debate of the 1980s has ignored the needs of girls, the American Association of University Women (AAUW) has launched its Initiative for Educational Equity. The first steps in this initiative were twofold. First, a survey of 3,000 fourth through tenth grade students, girls and boys from across the…

This paper presents information on trends in racial diversity at Texas institutions of higher education and reports on progress of a 5-year plan to increase minority involvement through 14 tables and associated explanatory narrative. The Texas Plan targets goals of percentage representation of Blacks, and Hispanic throughout public higher…

This document reports on five research and development projects that were funded in 1996-1997 by the Workers' Educational Association (WEA) to promote innovation in workers' education in Britain. The five projects and their major activities and/or outcomes were as follows: (1) The Learning Outcomes Strategy Project (monitored and refined a common…

The Coalition on Women and Job Training has developed a women's job training agenda that focuses on nine issues related to women's full participation in training and achievement of economic self-sufficiency. The issues highlighted in the agenda are as follows: (1) the need to make long-term economic self-sufficiency the goal of all employment and…

The New York City Board of Education formed the Latino Commission on Educational Reform to examine issues of concern to Latino children who comprise an increasing segment of the students in the public school system. An interim report was submitted on the dropout rate, curriculum and instruction, support services, parent and community empowerment,…

The proportion of women gaining qualifications within the educational systems of many countries has been increasing but the disciplines within which these qualifications are obtained, and ultimately of the career tracks to which such qualifications extend, continue to be sex-biased. This volume provides a start in the identification of biasing…