California's K-12 enrollment is projected to decline for the next two decades, driven by falling birth rates, reduced immigration, and out-of-state migration. With fewer students, districts receive fewer state dollars and may be forced to make tough decisions, including reductions to programs, staff, and/or schools. However, budget realignment…

This paper reflects the experience of the authors working in the field of humanitarian education during the last two decades. Important changes have been witnessed since the Central American crises of the seventies, the refugee focus of the eighties and the new UN vision of the complex emergency crisis of the nineties resulting from the post Cold…

This document describes the history of the New American Schools (NAS) organization from establishment in 1991 as the New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) to its present form. The organization requested proposals, received hundreds of applications, and ultimately selected 11. The successful proposals shared many ideas and…

The leadership of Qatar has a social and political vision that calls for improving the outcomes of the Qatari K-12 education system. With this vision in mind, the leadership asked RAND to examine Qatar's K-12 education system, to recommend options for building a world-class system, and, subsequently, to develop the chosen option and support its…

A descriptive study provides information in seven sections on regional educational service agencies (RESA's) in Pennsylvania (where they are called Intermediate Units or IU's). The information is derived from the Pennsylvania Department of Education, various IU's, and initial introductory interviews with current and former state department staff.…

Reviews 20th-century research on gifted students and on approaches to their education. Discusses recent federal and organizational initiatives and describes several current approaches to gifted education. Includes an extensive bibliography. (MCG)

This paper examines how to encourage widespread adoption of comprehensive school-reform models--adoption outside the schools and districts that took part in the development process. It refers to such models as "design-based" schools. The paper defines what is meant by a school design and describes receptive school and district…

With budget limitations, additional expectations and accountability requirements, changing enrollment trends, teacher shortages, need for new kinds of services, and other difficulties faced by rural communities, partnership arrangements with the private sector and higher education promise new avenues for rural education to meet future obligations.…

Institution-building is central to a country's self-sustaining growth because institutions provide an organizational infrastructure that can introduce improvements and innovations, sustain their momentum, and evaluate their results. Increasingly educational projects in developing nations have institution-building as an explicit objective. Key…

Various educators from Latin and Central America and the Caribbean met to design and produce materials for teaching family life, human sexuality, community life, and environmental studies. They concluded that the materials should meet community standards; help prepare for future change; develop working models for designing effective teaching…

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean face severe financial restrictions in educational funding. Responses to these restrictions are complex and require strong experimental efforts and adaptation to distinct and changing national situations. The articles in this bulletin respond to various proposals and situations that illustrate the search…

The development of a comprehensive state plan for arts education in Maryland is presented. The introduction states three program development goals and four major conclusions from a needs assessment of the mutual goals of the Maryland State Department of Education and the Maryland Alliance for Arts in Education. The goals include the development…

This booklet describes the earliest phases of planning a development program for a Catholic school. To ensure the success of such a program, there is need for the following: an initial common, basic understanding of and commitment to where the school is going on the part of all involved in the leadership of the school; involvement by leaders and…

This document profiles five schools that were selected as winners of the "Fifth Annual Business Week Awards for Instructional Innovation: Schools in the Age of Technology": Bailey's Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences (Falls Church, Virginia); Hunterdon Central Regional High School (Flemington, New Jersey); John Muir Elementary School…

Even Start is a family literacy and support program for families with young children. This paper focuses on the impact and potential of transitions for children and adults as Even Start helps them move across settings. Such transitions occur daily, such as from home to day care to work, or occur over time, such as a transition to formal schooling.…