The "Lau" decision of 1974, which was related to the education of Chinese-speaking students in San Francisco (California), ushered in new programs, teaching approaches, frameworks, legislation, and government agencies designed to redress fundamental inequities in the educational opportunities available to language minority students. This…

This report contains recommendations for changes to New York's Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to be considered during the 1997 legislative session. It outlines the principal options addressed by the task force, the historical context of the TAP, and the cost of meeting full tuition and non-tuition allowances through state and federal grants and…

This paper summarizes the results of a study of the local consequences of implementing statewide minimum competency tests. For American education to be the best in the world, the use of statewide and nationwide standardized testing as a primary policy tool for stimulating reform must be discontinued. Second, school district responses to such…

This report seeks to provide an objective review of Iowa's educational services to students with attention deficit disorders (ADD), and to present recommendations for maintaining and enhancing these services. State laws and rules and federal legislation and regulations guiding such students' eligibility for special education programs and services…

This paper reflects on the evolution of teacher performance incentive policies and draws conclusions from 10 years of monitoring trends in performance incentive policies, from the explosion of interest in career ladder plans in the mid-1980s through teacher and school incentive programs tied to comprehensive restructuring initiatives in the early…

School report cards from 11 Southeastern states were studied for similarities and differences in: (1) instruments used to measure student performance; (2) student outcomes reported and the procedures for reporting them; (3) levels of outcome reported; (4) school and community factors reported; and (5) statistical procedures used to evaluate data.…

Case studies of three states were conducted to examine different approaches to the development of policies concerning early intervention, family support, and interagency provisions under Part H of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The study utilized a qualitative methodology aimed at discovering grounded theory (theory generated…

This report provides an analysis of the activities being conducted by 25 federally-funded projects across the country that focus on issues related to paraeducators of students with disabilities. A definition of paraprofessionals/paraeducators is offered with a discussion of their increasing role in the education of students with disabilities in…

This report examines the development of school choice policies as an element of educational reform, describes open enrollment as one form of school choice, outlines other types of school choice programs, describes Minnesota's various forms of educational choice, explores arguments for and against choice, and discusses issues and concerns for…

To be truly effective, early childhood educational and day care policy must reflect the perceptions, views, and concerns of parents. Because parents are their children's primary teachers, there is a high correlation between parent involvement and their children's academic achievement, and a constituency of the family would make a significant…

Noting that communities and states all across America are working to achieve the first National Education Goal--by the year 2000, all children in America will start school ready to learn--this paper provides information on efforts to meet that goal. The first portion of the paper presents a definition of readiness to learn devised by the Education…

This report on gifted education is based on surveys returned by central education agencies in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and the Virgin Islands. The first section contains informational charts which provide a broad overview of state level services for gifted students. Included are data on the level of personnel support for the…

Limitations of using linear, unilevel regression procedures in modeling student achievement are discussed. This study is a part of a broader study that is developing an empirically-based predictive model of variables associated with academic achievement from a multilevel perspective and examining the differences by which parameters are estimated…

The master plan set forth in this document is the blueprint for restructuring vocational education in Texas. At the elementary and secondary level, the State Board of Education's mission for public education calls for all students to receive an education that will enable them to live and work in a changing society. To fulfill this mission, the…

Teacher competency testing is not new, but since the mid-1970s the number of states requiring new teachers to be tested has grown rapidly. States differ in their definition of competence, in the methods they use to assess competence, and in the treatment of teachers who do not meet competency requirements. This monograph describes a national…