One in six school-age Minnesotans has at least one immigrant parent and one in five Minnesotans under five years old is a child of immigrants. This trend is part of a significant shift in the state's racial and ethnic makeup over the past 25 years. This report looks at Minnesota's redesign of policies and practices to better support the education…

Caught between extraordinary public expectations and relatively modest constitutional authority, U.S. presidents historically have fashioned all sorts of mechanisms--executive orders, proclamations, memoranda--by which to move their objectives forward. William Howell asserts that under President Barack Obama's administration, presidential…

The West Comprehensive Center (WCC) is working with the Arizona Department of Education (ADE), the Nevada Department of Education (NDE), and the Utah State Office of Education (USOE) to assist districts and schools that are implementing activities to improve outcomes for Indian students. As a first step, WCC staff reviewed state and national law,…

This report provides six mini-case studies of higher education policy reforms enacted in other states, exploring the important role that state policy leadership played in developing, promoting, and implementing these policies aimed at improving higher education outcomes, and discussing the relevance of each reform effort for California. This…

Two decades of research have documented what now is common knowledge: no in-school factor matters more to students' educational experiences and outcomes than the effectiveness of their teacher. As a result, the national airspace is increasingly crowded with proposed reforms and initiatives designed to boost teacher performance, including new…

Since 1946, four major efforts to improve educational outcomes through shifts in governance have occurred in North Carolina. The 1989 reforms were characterized by an increase in rhetoric about local control and initiatives, teacher involvement, and school-based management. This paper surveys the last 50 years of educational reform policy in North…

This training manual is designed to provide information that will help Missouri educators understand and implement new state requirements regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities in the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP). It addresses the following topics: (1) reasons for including students with disabilities in a state assessment…

The California Roundtable (CRT) played a critical role in the shaping and passage of California's Senate Bill 813 (SB 813), the State's major education reform legislation enacted in July 1983. This working paper analyzes the content of the legislation, assesses its likely impact on student performance, and recommends steps the CRT (a consortium of…

This case study uses six interviews with administrators and three speeches to trace the definition of the term "at risk" in Arizona educational policy, where the definition process was used as an opportunity to enhance the prestige and power of the State Department of Education. (SLD)

Highlighting Massachusetts initiatives, examines the recent state movement toward adoption of curriculum frameworks and state assessments as vehicles for improving accountability and student achievement. Absence of standards guarantees stratified educational opportunities. Reform initiatives should include practitioners; avoid prescriptive,…

A discussion session for urban school superintendents from Pennsylvania and New Jersey identified four educational issues, currently the focus of a good deal of political debate and activity, that illustrate the shift from local to Federal, and then from Federal to state-level influence and initiative. These are (1) centralization of control; (2)…

Difficulties and rewards in using state assessment policy to benefit both students and the state are reviewed. The questions examined in this guide will help state policy makers know the questions they should ask about whether, what, and how well students are learning. Questions were developed from four seminars in 1989, 1990, and 1991 on…

This publication is the fourth issue of a report required by the North Carolina School Improvement and Accountability Act. It presents information that is related primarily to the outcomes of education based on student achievement with the intention of giving policy makers and decision makers the information needed to improve achievement. It…

This paper presents an examination of case law on faculty tenure and promotion as they are affected by institutional financial exigency and an examination of case law on personnel and faculty evaluation. An opening section reviews growing demands for accountability in higher education including legislatively mandated assessment of faculty and of…

An independent, external evaluation of the compensatory component of the Educational Opportunities Fund of Alberta, Canada covered the period from July 1973 to June 1976 and focused on twenty-one northern Alberta school districts. Results revealed that pupil mastery of basic skills has improved and pupil selfconfidence has increased since the…