In the past few years, numerous states have initiated school improvement programs. These programs have included any or all of the following characteristics: (1) teacher and administrator certification and competency tests; (2) school-based planning; (3) staff development; (4) student assessment; (5) revised curricula and instructional strategies;…

This reference guide is designed to give educators and other interested persons a better understanding of the information contained in the score reports from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, the key measuring stick of the state's school improvement strategy. To do this, the guide is organized around the four basic form types used in…

This document is a comprehensive directory of Federal offices, programs, and facilities for K-12 education in mathematics and science for the Appalachia Region. The purpose of this directory is to assist educators, parents, and students in attaining the National Education Goals, particularly Goal 4: "By the year 2000, U.S. students will be…

The purpose of this directory is to assist educators, parents, and students in attaining the National Education Goals, particularly Goal 4: "By the year 2000, U.S. students will be first in the world in science and mathematics achievement." The guidebook describes programs, along with contact information, that assist students who will go…

In the midst of national education reform and in line with efforts to describe national standards for school mathematics, Texas is taking an aggressive role in reforming mathematics in the public schools. Ways that Texas schools, the Texas Education Agency, and the State Board of Education are addressing the dramatically changing needs of…

Written for local, State, and Federal vocational educators, this publication discusses the feasibility of implementing recommendations from some recent evaluations of educational excellence. Criteria for estimating the appropriateness of evaluation findings are given, and recommendations are offered for creating an infrastructure among local,…

Grant funds totaling over $136 million were awarded during fiscal year 1988 to 408 Massachusetts educational agencies, pursuant to the Massachusetts Public School Improvement Act (Chapter 188) and An Act Enhancing the Teaching Profession and Recognizing Educational Achievement (Chapter 727). Twelve grant programs reaching virtually every school in…

This guide was developed to provide assistance and direction for members of local school communities as they plan to improve instructional programs for students. Supplemented by a resource handbook, the guide is designed for teachers, parents, administrators, and support staff members in schools receiving funding through the following programs:…

This document was designed to provide school administrators and professional staff of New York State with a model for evaluating the grade 7-8 social studies program. The program evaluation model outlines a step-by-step procedure for identifying questions for study, gathering and analyzing data, and developing a plan for program improvement. An…

Intended as a summary report for state leaders, this document outlines current problems in education, particularly science and math education, and suggests ways in which the state educational systems can be changed to provide students with an adequate preparation for knowledge-intensive jobs involving the retrieval, processing, and transmission of…

This guide was developed to help administrators, teachers, students, parents, and the business community understand and implement tech prep programs in South Carolina. (Tech prep is a major restructuring strategy designed to meet the needs of students who want to function effectively in a technological workplace and to ensure that students are…

In a study designed to determine the impact of state curriculum initiatives on curriculum framework, student assessment, and textbook adoption in the science curriculum, researchers interviewed state education agency staff, completed four case studies in four districts, and surveyed 100 school districts at random in each of the three diverse…

Questions and answers on North Carolina's Senate Bill 2, the School Improvement and Accountability Act, are presented in this booklet. General information about governance, assessment, and funding is provided in the first section. The next section explains setting specific student performance targets in the form of performance indicators. The…

The conference reported in this document was attended by representatives of seven states (Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington). Participants focused on three key questions: (1) what are the issues and objectives behind assessment in each state? (2) what can be done regarding the implementation of…

Traces the evolution of the state geography standards in Rhode Island and gives a summary of the work accomplished thus far toward implementing the National Geography Standards. Profiles several state and local initiatives and discusses the Standards that they represent. (MJP)