The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) began to take form when dozens of educators from across the country were led by governors and chief state school officers in gathering and reviewing the academic standards of states that had the best outcomes. Their goal was to determine what the current best academic standards were in the country and then…

How important is it that every student in a school is excited about learning? Should a student be allowed to use all his/her strengths in learning? Do you know someone who wasn't a particularly good student but has been very successful in life? What these seemingly unrelated questions have in common is an appreciation for the range of talents that…

Teachers implementing a local history project in Belmont, California, had help from a federally funded technology innovation challenge grant: the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project. Sponsored by a Silicon Valley school-business partnership, the initiative illustrates how technology can transform classroom learning while supporting instructional…

Describes the newly proposed federal agency called the National Institute for the Environment (NIE). Discusses the history of the NIE concept; NIE goals; proposed NIE activities involving environmental research, assessment, information, and education and training; and ways in which environmental educators can assist the NIE effort. (MDH)

Discussed is a program that awards money to institutions that want to develop teacher training programs with national significance. Information on how the funds can be used and how the funds are distributed is included. (KR)

This publication contains the proceedings of the Senate Subcommittee on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse hearings in April 1981, which reviewed and evaluated current alcohol and drug education programs and the role of its government. Statements by government staff as well as nationwide directors of alcohol and drug education programs are provided along…

Rural school districts must cope with problems of finance, energy, teacher recruitment, and curriculum. The Pawnee Heights School District (Kansas) has dealt with all of these. Concerning finance, Pawnee Heights has taken advantage of several federal programs including CETA, Title I, Career Education, and Title III; it has filed an application for…

This report examines issues relevant to establishing an Office of Student Financial Assistance (OSFA) ombudsman office within the Department of Education. The OSFA ombudsman office came out of the need to improve student lending program services and to mitigate the impact of loan default on students. It was determined that students involved in…

A training program that allows scientists and educators to experiment with new ways to improve student performance in science and mathematics is described. Scientists and educators are encouraged to work together to develop projects for in-service education and projects that can be worked on by students in the laboratory. (KR)

This paper discusses ways that students can better be taught to think. It argues that poor/low-achieving students served by Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 could genuinely profit from instruction on thinking and that, for maximum impact, such instruction should be introduced as a course in itself, separate from…

Examines shortcomings of the traditional high school special education curriculum and highlights a curriculum designed to assist students with mild disabilities in their transition to adulthood. The curriculum emphasizes problem solving and self-advocacy and includes components on daily living, personal/social, occupational exploration, and…

Southern Illinois University developed an instructional approach for supporting collaborative, problem-based learning (PBL) in medical education. A succession of software tools were developed and refined to implement this approach, and a technology-enriched facility, the "Collaborative Learning Lab" (CLL) was designed. The paper…

Research activities underway as part of the Air Force's Learning Abilities Measurement Program (LAMP) are described. A major objective of the program is to devise new models of the nature and organization of human abilities, that could be applied to improve personnel selection and classification systems. The activities of the project have been…

This article argues that the U.S. dissemination system in education is unresponsive to organizational improvement needs, and that development of this bias is exacerbated by political, organizational, and programmatic thrusts in federal agencies. It is suggested that systems in the Netherlands and Denmark could provide useful models for adapting…

Specific instances in which federal legislation and regulations function to impede state/local effectiveness are grouped under eight major issues: (1) lack of coordination among federal programs and agencies; (2) regulations established by federal agencies exceed authority granted in statutes; (3) federal policies that prescribe methodology or…