This volume contains transcripts of four oral history interviews that were conducted during a study of the history of vocational education in Florida. The first interview is with Maxwell Samuel Thomas, a vocational educator who began his career in 1932 and has since served as a vocational education teacher and administrator, participated in…

The study described in this document was conducted to identify the development and implementation issues surrounding the concept of integrating employer-specific education-for-work capabilities into Minnesota vocational education. The methodology of the study was as follows: (1) establish a small stakeholder group that represents constituencies…

A national perspective on issues in graduate and professional education in California is provided with an emphasis on increasing the participation of minority students and women in advanced degree programs; assuring an adequate supply and quality of college faculty into the next century; and minimizing the adverse affects of growing loan burdens.…

This report, commissioned by Wisconsin's superintendent of public instruction, focuses on methods of attracting, preparing, and retaining competent and dedicated teachers in Wisconsin schools. Part I consists of recommendations to attract competent individuals to careers in teaching: informing the public about career opportunities in education and…

Education professors are being attacked for the way they prepare people to teach. This criticism is not well founded; teacher preparation programs are being made scapegoats so that the public can avoid facing the hard facts that constitute the core of the problems within the teaching profession. Nowhere has the attack on teacher education been…

The back-to-basics movement and public demands for educational quality guarantees have led state education agencies (SEA's) to examine their options in four areas: definition of the basics, relevant curricular and programming alternatives, alternatives for evaluating achievement of basics-related goals, and methods of reporting achievements to the…

A study examined the vocational and adult education system in isolated rural areas. The study included a review of literature, legislation, and exemplary programs, and conducted interviews with community leaders in twenty isolated, rural counties. Unstructured telephone interviews with representatives of the business, civic, and education sectors,…

One- to four-page summaries are presented of fifty-seven of the 1978 annual reports of the State Advisory Councils of Vocational Education. Most of the reports, which are arranged alphabetically by state, address the effectiveness of vocational education programs, services, and activities in meeting the objectives as set forth in the state plan…

The political issues and activities involved in the reporting of results of the 1969-70 Michigan Educational Assessment Program are discussed. The background and purposes of the program, the events and forces that shaped the manner in which assessment results were reported, and several political issues regarding the design of the 1970-71…

This report on state virtual schools outlines the recent trends associated with virtual high schools over the last 15 years. It notes that early trends indicate that virtual schools are on the rise. The report provides reasons for why the trends have occurred, and describes the Southern Regional Education Board's role in providing information and…

Two decades ago, the State of Texas began a set of groundbreaking reforms that made performance-based accountability the centerpiece of its public education system. Texans should be proud of this progress. But now, twenty years later, Texas must meet a new set of challenges to continue its success in educating all children at the highest…

This document is intended to guide special education policy in British Columbia (Canada) and stresses the basic elements of Individual Education Plans, school-based teams, district-wide planning, and resource sharing. After an introduction on how to use the guide (including a glossary of terms), the manual is divided into eight sections that…

The success of alternative assessments such as the Vermont Assessment Program (VAP) is heavily dependent on the involvement and commitment of teachers. This paper focuses on the implementation of the writing portfolio component of the VAP in the classrooms of four teachers who have different knowledge and beliefs about teaching and assessment. The…

A main goal of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is to close gaps in test scores between different groups of students while raising achievement for all groups. Of particular concern are the persistent achievement gaps between African American, Latino, and Native American students and their white and Asian counterparts, and between students from…

This year the Center on Education Policy (CEP) analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps…