Beginning in the mid- to late-1980s, state policymakers began to rethink their strategies for influencing curriculum and instruction in public education and adopted a policy strategy known as standards-based, systemic reform. This issue of "Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) Policy Briefs" examines how standards-based, systemic…

This Executive Order of the President outlines a plan for federal agencies to develop a long-term comprehensive federal Indian education policy that will accomplish six goals for American Indian and Alaska Native education. These goals are improving reading and mathematics; increasing high school completion and postsecondary attendance rates;…

This expanded issue explores well-known comprehensive school reform models and provides tools and resources to assist school leaders in choosing reform programs. Case studies provide information about three well-known models: the Coalition of Essential Schools, the Paideia Program, and the Success for All Program. These reforms are discussed in…

This newsletter contains six articles all related to the theme of education for recent legal and illegal immigrants. In "Golden Lord with Us from the Main Forest: Some Thoughts on the Education of Recent Immigrants," Aurelio M. Montemayor reflects on his experiences growing up in a bilingual, bicultural extended family of…

A well-conceived system of performance appraisal can indicate the conditions and circumstances motivating individual faculty members to improve their teaching. The performance appraisal system must be sensitive to the different ways in which faculty members fulfill their professional goals of teaching, research, and service. The system needs to…

The nine papers appearing in this document review both limitations and progress in education in Latin America, study the future of education in Latin America and the Caribbean, and make recommendations to the Regional Program for Educational Development (PREDE). There is, in addition, a lengthy transcription of a discussion, among eight of the…

In the face of widespread geographic ignorance, the article applauds the improved status of geography in the schools, describing it as the science best able to meet the challenge of ensuring that students' mental maps of the world are filled in with great and accurate detail. The field is defined through a multiple definition as both a physical…

The following major activities are discussed to guide educators through the complexities of curriculum organization. The first, defining outcomes, includes: (1) exit outcomes that express broad educational goals; (2) unit objectives; and (3) lesson objectives. The second major activity, developing learning units, includes: (1) opening lessons; (2)…

Five selections summarize training methods for the principalship from the perspective that cognizance of the complexities of being a principal arises from practice, thus experiential learning should be incorporated into preservice and inservice training programs. The first selection, "Making Sense of Principals' Work," by Kent Petersen, is a…

The horizontal evaluation model was developed to remedy three major problems associated with competency-based approaches to teacher evaluation: there is no consensus regarding what competencies are essential to good teaching; teachers' behaviors may or may not be related to competencies they possess; and competency-based evaluation typically fails…

Developed for the industrial arts multifield laboratory program (junior high level), this curriculum guide provides the industrial arts teacher with a plan of organization for a one-year program of instruction based on seven units of instructional activities: metals, woods, plastics, drafting, electricity, power, and home repairs. Each unit lists…

The discrepancy evaluation model (DEM) specifies that evaluation consists of comparing performance with a standard, yielding discrepancy information. DEM is applied to programs in order to improve the program by making standards-performance-discrepancy cycles explicit and public. Action-oriented planning is involved in creating standards; a useful…

This report, from the Faculty Association of Community and Technical Colleges (FACTC) in Washington, focuses on various distance learning courses offered by the state's two-year colleges. The report contains 16 articles from faculty members and students, including: (1) "The Emperor's New Tutor: A Confession" (Sydney Wallace Stegall); (2)…

In this publication are three short articles on successful school practices. "Learning Is the Outcome; Test Scores Are Just the Measure" describes test-preparation efforts in Mesa, Arizona, public schools. The district has instituted a program to assist principals and teachers in aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment, and in…

This monograph notes the dichotomy between doctoral education and preparation for various kinds of jobs or careers, arguing that while doctoral education prepares people to do independent research, employers by and large are seeking other skills. This paper attempts to examine the role of graduate education through a variety of lenses--e.g., as…