Urban school restructuring, although it can break down bureaucracy and empower teachers, can also seem distant from the day-to-day problems of most teachers, and even increase teacher burnout. Many of the following initiatives of the school restructuring movement may intensify a teacher's frustration: (1) school-based management may raise the…

The Critical Issue Bibliography (CRIB) Sheet focuses on alcohol and drug abuse on campus, a problem that has accelerated in the last decade. The CRIB sheet is divided into five sections related to key areas an institution needs to consider when trying to prevent alcohol and drug abuse on campus: (1) trends in research; (2) legal implications; (3)…

These guidelines are provided to offer guidance to district and state policy makers and assessment directors concerning some issues of managing the development, administration, and use of performance assessments in large scale assessment programs. The term "performance assessment" is used for assessments that go beyond paper-and-pencil,…

Strategies and problems facing the small private liberal arts colleges as a group are described. Many of these schools have weathered the financial emergencies of recent years by cutting expenditures to the point where the quality of education is threatened. New measures have been called for to reduce the tuition gap between private and public…

Most practitioners and researchers support the educational policy direction of increased parent involvement, but few agree about what constitutes effective involvement. This digest, based on a critical evaluation of over 200 research studies, briefly reviews findings from parent involvement research to date, discusses their validity and utility,…

The National Commission on Excellence in Education has challenged educators across the nation to drastically change the course of education during the 1980s. While rural educators share the desire to provide excellence in education, the Commission and the United States Department of Education must recognize the unique characteristics of rural…

This document argues that current efforts to establish a national test to measure progress toward the nation's educational goals will inhibit, rather than advance, educational reform. Proponents of a national test have asked for single, primarily multiple-choice tests, or for performance assessments to measure progress toward the nation's…

Four presentations from the 1985 Annual Michigan School Testing Conference on "Assessing Higher Order Skills" are offered in this paper, and the chairman of the First General Session provides an introductory section. The papers individually and collectively address the problem of defining higher order thinking skills. A second major…

This review of research on recent refugees to the United States focuses on the Indochinese, Haitians and Cubans. An introduction stresses the need for more information to enhance a better understanding of the newcomers. Succeeding sections review published literature on: (1) the development of Federal policy concerning refugees, emphasizing the…

Intended for educational policy makers, this publication considers the teaching of controversial topics. Specifically discussed are what issues are considered controversial, why controversial topics should be taught, court decisions, ways educators can prepare for community response or complaints, and questions to address when making curriculum…

The purpose of this report is to acquaint the reader with the culture of the refugees entering American schools, to identify some of the educational problems they and educators face, and to help identify solutions or possibilities within educational management terms. In the first section of the report, the values, customs, traditions, beliefs, and…

The adult students who are the subject of this report bring a different orientation with them to the study of language than does the typical adult immigrant or foreign student of English. This former group may be engaged in foreign language study in order to satisfy a college level language requirement or as part of a continuing education or…