An exploration of some of the relationships between organizational characteristics of a state education agency and the decision making process in federal program administration. The consequences of the structural characteristics of a professional organization for the administration of externally imposed policy are discussed, leading to some…

This final report reviews a program of theoretical and empirical research focusing on the ability determinants of individual differences in skill acquisition. An integrative framework for information processing and cognitive ability determinants of skills is presented, along with principles for ability-skill relations. Three major patterns of…

This document is the first volume of a two-volume set of reports on child support enforcement. Volume I contains information on the dimensions of the nonsupport problem in the United States, stressing that of the 8.7 million women who were caring for children in fatherless homes in 1983, only 58% had court orders or agreements to receive child…

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) is Canada's publicly-owned broadcast network that provides programming to both English and French national television and AM/FM radio networks. While the CBC was not designed to fill a formal education role in Canada, it does broadcast informative radio and television programs on a complete range of…

This modified version of a previously published title provides additional information on foods for which reimbursement may be obtained from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) by child care centers and family day care homes participating in the Child Care Food Program. Such foods, called creditable foods, are those that may be…

This report discusses the status of children with disabilities mainstreamed into full-year Head Start programs in 1986-1987, based on the Program Information Report survey completed by each program. Nationally, children with disabilities totalled 65,276, comprising 12.7% of the Head Start enrollment. All programs reported serving at least one…

This Congressional report found that today's social and economic conditions harm large numbers of American families in ways that the child welfare, mental health, and juvenile justice systems were not created and are ill-prepared to address. The following findings are reported: (1) the number of children placed outside of their homes during the…

Using findings of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this report discusses how people become poor and why they stay that way. The PSID reveals that the requirements for getting out of poverty in the United States are so minimal that it takes a mutually reinforcing cluster of behaviors to remain in poverty, even for blacks and females. The…

Chapter 1 is the largest federal education program in existence. It provides extra services to help low-achieving students and is targeted primarily at areas where low-income families reside. Parent involvement in designing and implementing the program is an essential part of Chapter 1. However, the parent involvement component is often not as…

This paper addresses girls' patterns of computer avoidance at the middle school and other grade levels. It reviews the evidence for a gender gap in computer use in several areas: in school, at home, in computer camps, in computer magazines, and in computer-related jobs. It compares the computer equity issue to math avoidance, and cites the middle…

This report presents information about the number of eligible preschool children being served and not being served by Head Start programs in the state of Illinois. Four criteria used in determining eligibility for Head Start programs are reviewed: (1) family income, (2) age, (3) handicapping condition, and (4) need. Several tables provide data and…

The curriculum in English as a second language of the Overseas Refugee Training Program, a federally sponsored program designed to prepare Southeast Asian refugees for resettlement in the United States, uses a competency-based model and the format used in the Oregon State Minimal Competencies curriculum. The specialists who developed the refugee…

Middle school curriculum development in the Netherlands is following two divergent paths, and the central government should bring about unification. This paper describes change in administrative dominance of curriculum and management of curriculum programs since 1975, analyzes outcomes, and recommends unification. After program initiation,…

This executive summary presents information on the design rationale, project coordination, and findings for the first year of the Technology Applications in Basic Skills project (TAES), which was administered by the Merrimack Education Center and designed to implement programs that use the computer and related technologies to increase student…

This report based on data collected from 17 school districts in eight states throughout the country, examines how local school districts allocate Chapter 1 and related resources to public school and private school students and describes the distribution of Chapter 1 resources. The report is organized into eight chapters. Chapter 1 presents an…