The most recent data available from the National Center for Educational Statistics (2004) estimate that 60% of community college freshmen and 25% of freshmen at 4-year public institutions nationwide complete at least one remedial course. Nationally, fewer than 40% of students who are referred to developmental education actually enroll in…

Washington's recently enacted Student Learning Objectives Law demands that local districts implement a program designed to provide statewide educational accountability. The law ignores the complexity of such an implementation, providing no funding, no rewards for success, no assistance or training in developing implementation techniques, and a…

A collage of excerpts about the Florida Minimum Competencies Testing Program. (Author/MLF)

The Executive Director of the New Jersey Education Association discusses some of the top priorities facing his organization in the coming years. These include educational quality, accountability and testing, tenure, academic standards, and urban schools. (SJL)

This article discusses the potential for discrimination inherent in competency-based testing and suggests some provisions which might be included in a fair competency-based program. Discussed are: (1) racial discrimination; (2) inadequate phase-in periods; (3) tests which are not reliable or have not been validated; (4) inadequate matching of the…

Presented in this paper are the results of interviews undertaken in 1977 to determine who supported a new statewide minimum standards bill in New Jersey and why. The views of forty individuals who were selected on the basis of their active involvement in the statewide minimum standards issue, are summarized in statements following each of twelve…

In this paper, the Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction reviews issues surrounding competency testing and describes Wisconsin's response to a nationwide effort to enhance student learning through competency based education. Efforts of the past two decades to improve traditional educational practice in Wisconsin are outlined.…

After providing background on Title 5 regulations that upgraded standards of rigor for degree-applicable credit courses offered by California community colleges, this report presents revisions to course standards regulations for nondegree credit, noncredit, and grade point averaging. An analysis of the revisions is included, indicating that: (1)…

Representatives from Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas discuss the issues surrounding teacher and student competency and accountability. For each state, they review legislative policies and actions and the programs of the state education department regarding the use of competency and accountability standards. The…

Colorado's Educational Accountability Act, enacted in 1971, requires that each of the state's 181 school districts undergo a process of planning and implementing school improvements. This report utilized local districts' findings to answer the following questions: (1) To what extent is the Educational Accountability Act being implemented in…

This publication provides the basic statistics needed to illustrate the impact of North Carolina's Basic Education Program (BEP), an educational reform effort begun in 1985. Over 85% of the positions in the BEP are directly related to teaching and student-related activities. The new BEP programs result in smaller class sizes in kindergartens and…

Shortcomings in the current student assessment program in Georgia are identified, proposed revisions are described, and additional changes are recommended. Georgia educators have complained that curricula place too much emphasis on basic skills, to the detriment of subjects like science and social studies. Reform legislation in Georgia has…

This statement of program priorities is approved in the late spring to guide the New York State Education Department staff in detailed preparation of requests for state fiscal aid beginning the following April 1. The wide-ranging goals in general and occupational education concern lifetime learning; basic skills; health education; understanding…

This paper describes the response of the Chicago school district to an Illinois State board of education directive that local school districts have an ongoing program of assessing student achievement and educational programs. The minimum competency testing program in place before the directive is discussed. The testing program and the nongraded…

The panel which conducted this study was invited by the Florida Teaching Profession--National Education Association (NEA) and the NEA to assess the educational soundness of implementation of the Florida Accountability Act. The panel felt that the overall purpose of the accountability program was praiseworthy, but that the minimum competency…