Increasingly, early education, regardless of setting type, is considered to be an educational intervention that sets the stage for children's long-term school success. Accordingly, policymakers are focused on how to develop and support educators who have the skills and capacity to deliver high-quality programming to children. A pressing question…

Adult basic education is critical to the future of the state of Mississippi. However, the state contributes only 8.5 percent of funding for adult education (the remaining 91.5 percent comes from federal sources) to serve less than 2.3 percent of the eligible population. Furthermore, Mississippi loses up to one-third of its potential high school…

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,…

This brief discusses research showing that high-quality early childhood programs can sharply improve readiness for school, especially for children who are at risk of school failure. The brief describes North Carolina's creation of the "More at Four" pre-kindergarten program and discusses research on important issues and potential…

Sections 51215-51217 of California's Educational Code require that school districts in that state provide remedial instruction to students who do not pass district-developed proficiency tests. As a result of this requirement, school districts have had to create remedial courses for some 100,000 students who did not pass one or more tests in…

Drawing on a national survey by Barak and Berdahl, this article discusses the trend in many states toward official reviews of doctoral programs. The rationale behind these academic reviews, procedures used, results, and the benefits and problems of review programs are discussed. (SJL)

This report explores policies and practices governing online education with a particular focus on policies aiming to provide students with high-quality online learning experiences. The report looks specifically at two areas: state-level policies governing online education, and statewide online programs (i.e., programs created by legislation or by…

The Board of Regents (BoR) and State Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) selected four external consultants to review and evaluate redesigned graduate programs for educational leaders and teachers. In addition, personnel from the Louisiana Department of Education reviewed all K-12 undergraduate teacher preparation programs and…

In 2001, a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in a landmark school funding case, Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), Inc. v. State of New York, declared the current New York state funding system unconstitutional and ordered the legislature to replace it with a new cost-based system that ensures that every school district has sufficient…

This policy brief examines the fundamental principles that undergird the current Total Quality Management (TQM) movement, describes application examples and discusses application problems particular to higher education. An opening section reviews the basic premises of TQM and differentiates between two perspectives on the approach: the first see…

The thesis of this paper is that achievement tests have changed their primary function from serving as indicators of educational accomplishments to becoming instruments of educational policy, and have thus come to be regarded as effective means of altering educational achievement and productivity. This assertion is explored by using examples of…

This document reports the proceedings of a 1985 conference on preventing the legal problems that could grow out of the implementation of career ladder and merit pay programs for teachers. The contents of the report include a welcome by Preston C. Kronkosky; an overview by Virginia Koehler of the goals, characteristics, and demands of career ladder…

This report defines policy and practices for child care assistance for welfare recipients in New York, and explores ways in which the state could use the newly enacted federal welfare reform legislation to create opportunities for children of welfare recipients. The six sections of the report are based on a survey of child care policies and…

Providing comparative data on child care policies and programs in the State of Kentucky; this report presents an analysis of the issues, including regulation, licensing, tax and fiscal policies, subsidy programs, expenditures, availability, and quality. Data used in the study were the most current data available from the United States Department…

The purpose of this paper is to provide information about the current status of available programs, research findings related to quality programs, and issues surrounding programs for 4-year-old children. The paper is intended as a resource for multiple audiences, including decision makers, legislators, regulatory administrators, advocates,…