This one-page guide provides a handy reference to help you understand state and federal accountability program terminology. Terms defined herein are: (1) Academic Performance Index (API); (2) Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP); (3) Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Program (CSRD); (4) California Standards Tests (CSTs); (5) High Priority…

This commentary on the demonstration programs of the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Students Education Program discusses their role in inducing educational change, their usefulness in illustrating new ideas, their broadening of the definition of the gifted student, their ability to change participating teachers' perspective, and their…

The early 70's will see federal programs in transition as the new administration attempts to redesign health, education, and welfare. However, new organization and school structures do not necessarily mean that there will be new instructional programs. It is the educational personnel who must change and direct changes in the learning processes. If…

Discusses the model programs and research activities of NIE in career education: the Institute sees career education as being concerned with fundamental education-related processes by which people select, prepare for and are retrained for increasingly satisfying jobs and careers. (Author/JM)

This document lists projects funded under the Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education's (FIPSE) Comprehensive Program from 1995 through 1998. Also included in this edition are abstracts of the three 1998 FIPSE focus competitions: Disseminating Proven Reforms, European Community/United States Joint Consortia,…

This publication presents approximately 50 brief case studies that describe the experience of participants in the National Diffusion Network (NDN), a linkage system established by the U.S. Office of Education to enable people to share their knowledge and help each other promote change in the schools. The case studies illustrate the change-agent…

Flexibility and accountability are two levers for change that occupy an increasingly prominent place among federal strategies for educational improvement. In return for introducing higher academic standards and performance-based accountability systems, states and districts have been granted increasing flexibility over how they may use the funding…

This document describes the workshop, its objectives, and its participants; presents activity plan proposals for the pilot schools; and evaluates the effectiveness of the workshop in achieving its objectives. Four appendixes include (1) a list of the workshop participants; (2) a schedule of the work conference program; (3) the activity plan…

This observational study involved literacy and mathematics instruction of 145 teachers in grades 3 through 5 in 20 low-income schools enrolled in the U.S. government's Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Demonstration program. Observed curriculum and instructional practices were primarily and coherently focused on acquisition of basic facts and…

This final report documents Phase I of a federally funded, naturalistic study of how middle schools can integrate technology into mainstream instruction for mildly handicapped students. Phase I of the study, carried out from October 1986 through September 1989, examined teacher practices that create successful, computer-supported learning…

This report reviews and synthesizes the findings of the survey and fieldwork as presented in Volumes II and III. In particular, it summarizes the evidence concerning the effects of federal change agent policy. Section 1 introduces the report. Section 2 describes the theoretical approach that served as the basis for data collection and analysis.…

Under the sponsorship of the U. S. Office of Education, Rand is conducting a several-year study of federally funded programs designed to introduce and spread innovative practices in public schools. These change agent programs normally offer temporary federal funding to school districts as "seed money" or "risk capital." If an…

The next step in the school-to-career (STC) movement is to build upon its significant successes in today's policy and political environment. The School to Work Opportunities Act 1994 codifies a reform agenda to promote academic achievement and economic opportunity for young people during and after high school. Its general principles are that most…

This report, prepared by the Lifelong Learning Project at the request of the Assistant Secretary for Education, focuses on the adult years of lifelong learning. An executive summary precedes the report and summarizes its main findings. For example, it is reported that the federal government has provided only a fraction of its financial support for…

These four issues of volume 1 (1991) contain brief reports on published research of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE). In Issue 1 are these eight articles: "Twelve Exemplary High Schools: Preparing Vocational Students for College"; "High School Vocational Education Withering Away?"; "Separate…