The Washington Governor's School for Citizen Leadership gathers a diverse group of high school students and presents a curriculum focusing on experiential, integrated learning. The school emphasizes expressive arts, interpersonal and team skills, and critical thinking; and seeks to ignite students' social responsibility and empower them to take…

To inform faculty and staff about the new state retirement plan and help them compare its benefits with those of the only existing employer-sponsored retirement plan for educators, a defined-benefit plan, Georgia Institute of Technology used an electronic spreadsheet and a series of seminars for analyzing and illustrating investment options. (MSE)

Outlines the Community College of Vermont's (CCV) mission as dedicating itself to accessibility, flexibility, and affordability through its decentralized organization. Describes CCV's "virtual campus," an integrated voice/data wide-area network that fosters schoolwide communication. Notes that transfer agreements with four-year…

Includes three reports that describe how Utah's government, libraries, and educational institutions at all levels are becoming more effective through the use of computer and telecommunications technology. Highlights include public library connectivity; public school networks that provide Internet access; and higher education technology and…

Describes recent state initiatives to improve child care for Mississippi children. Efforts include development of a child care director's credential, on-site training through staff at mobile training vans, initiatives to heighten consumer awareness and help parents make informed choices, voter education projects, and free yearly conferences for…

Summarizes the recent history of education reform and statewide testing in Texas. Suggest that analyses comparing Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) reading, writing, and mathematics scores with one another and relevant high school grades raise doubts about the reliability and validity of TAAS scores. Discusses these problems. (SLD)

Discusses the amount of money being spent to buy computers for classrooms and emphasizes the need for more money to be spent on teacher training to successfully integrate computers into the curriculum. Reviews state surveys on technology plans and teacher training and considers the effects of staff development on student achievement. (LRW)

The Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX; www.alex.state.al.us) is a network-based education system designed and implemented to help improve education in Alabama. It accomplishes this goal by providing a single location for the state's K-12 educators to find information that will help improve their classroom effectiveness. The ALEX system includes…

Mentoring programs have proven to provide benefits to youth and are expanding rapidly in schools. There was concern whether the economic and demographic issues of urban communities and schools would limit success of mentoring programs in urban schools as compared to nonurban. This study focuses on Team-Mates, a statewide, school-based, one-to-one,…

The California Research Bureau (CRB), in participation with the California Council on Youth Relations (CCYR), and with support from The California Wellness Foundation, has been conducting a major research and policy initiative to bring attention to the issues facing homeless youth in California. These include lack of shelter and educational…

Educators across the United States continue to enable a wider and ethnically diverse proportion of students to achieve success in AP[R]. Significant inequities remain, however, which can result in traditionally underserved students not receiving the sort of AP (Advanced Placement) opportunities that can best prepare them for college success.…

The Mississippi Community College Fellowship Program (MCCFP), a project of the Department of Educational Leadership at Mississippi State University, is designed to assist in the identification, development, and training of the state's future community college leaders. Two participants are nominated by each of the 16 public community college…

This final report focuses on activities and accomplishments of a 3-year federally supported project in North Carolina to identify and serve students with deaf-blindness. Major accomplishments included: an increase in identified deaf blind individuals in the state from 341 at the beginning of the project to 396 at the end; implementation of a Model…

The Beginning Educator Support and Training (BEST) Program (a performance-based assessment program) was developed to enable the Connecticut State Department of Education to implement legislation requiring beginning teachers to achieve a satisfactory evaluation on a professional knowledge clinical assessment during their initial year of teaching.…

The decline in Federal funding for state-provided social services during the 1980s triggered a transformation in the states' roles in family policymaking. This booklet documents four state initiatives designed to bring about systems change: (1) Healthy Start (California); (2) the Governor's Families and Children Initiative (Colorado); (3) the…