This brief overview of minimum competency testing and disabled high school students discusses: the inclusion or exclusion of handicapped students in minimum competency testing programs; approaches to accommodating the individual needs of handicapped students; and legal issues. Surveys of states that have mandated minimum competency tests indicate…

This digest considers the use of performance assessment within outcomes-based accountability systems for students with and without disabilities. Application of performance assessment to students with disabilities involves defining the outcomes, developing performance standards, developing assessment accommodations, and scoring. Implications of…

A brief overview of the status of state programs designed to assess teacher competency is provided. Tests commonly used by states include tests of persons who apply to educational programs (admissions tests) and tests for graduates of teacher education programs (certification tests). Admissions tests are used by 24 states, while certification…

Reports from 12 state supervisors of foreign languages were compiled. Each report describes a state's elementary and secondary foreign language programs and activities as of November 1981. Topics covered include basic foreign language programs, trends in foreign language enrollment, teacher training, work with other divisions within the state…

Presented are more than 284 summaries of environmental education programs being implemented within school systems and institutions of higher education. Programs are listed state-by-state. Each project or program contains information categorized under such entries as: (1) coordinator and address; (2) history of the project; (3) objectives; (4)…

The report includes three papers on the exceptional bilingual child and summaries of 22 bilingual/bicultural special education federally funded training programs. The first paper "Bilingual Special Education Report" by P. Landurand describes Massachusetts' Bilingual Special Education Project (BISEP) which has cooperated with regional education…

This digest examines issues concerning performance assessment of students receiving special education services. Issues addressed are: (1) need to infuse performance assessment into national programs including the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS); (2) current lack of inclusion of…

The U.S. Office of Education (USOE) supported the development of four career education models in the 1970s: school-based, later comprehensive career education model; employer-based, later the experience-based career education model; home/community-based model; and the residential-based model. Establishment of the Office of Career Education (OCE)…

Key aspects of P.L. 99-457, the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986, affecting handicapped infants, toddlers, and preschoolers from birth to age 5 are summarized. Presented in a question answer format the information digest addresses the following questions: What children are eligible for early intervention services? Are these…

This digest presents an overview of accommodations for students of limited English proficiency (LEP) and an overview of inclusion practices on statewide assessments, with emphasis on the accommodation known as linguistic simplification. The inclusion of LEP students in statewide testing programs over the last decade has been uneven. In the…

This digest examines the rural teacher shortage from a policy perspective and suggests strategies to address the problem. The rural teacher recruitment and retention problem varies across states. An adequate number of teachers are trained each year nationwide, but the problem is with distribution. Recent research on rural teacher recruitment and…

Accountability has been a developing issue for community colleges for the past several years. Demands that two-year colleges provide evidence of the achievement of their goals has placed a heavy burden on institutional research offices. A number of organizational models have been used by community colleges in carrying out the research function,…

The standards-based educational reform initiatives of the 1990's call for assessment innovations to support high standards. To document state assessment policies and to develop policy recommendations for assessment innovations, the George Washington University Center for Excellence and Equity in Education surveyed state assessment directors in…

Thoughtful, well-planned and systematic reviews of both instructional and noninstructional programs provide community colleges with a way of determining whether programs are meeting stated objectives and what standards of performance should be maintained. Programs that need improvement or should be eliminated can be identified, and fiscal…

The evolution of the Adult Education Act (AEA) in the last 25 years illustrates the progress of adult basic education (ABE) in the United States. A detailed look at the literature and outcomes of AEA-funded projects provides a sense of the effectiveness of 25 years of federal involvement. The passage of the AEA in 1966 led to the first systematic…