One of National PTA's advocacy victories was ensuring that parent engagement requirements were included in The Elementary and Secondary Education/No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (ESEA/NCLB). In January 2002, it became the law of the land to hold Title 1 schools and parents jointly accountable for high student achievement. To help these schools…

Young people who live in rural areas are less likely to finish high school and to complete college than their urban and suburban peers. These adolescents are also more likely to use drugs and alcohol: rural adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 have the highest levels of drug use in this age group. Out-of-school-time programs in rural areas…

Teaching all students to high standards may not be achievable with the way the vast bulk of schools in the United States are organized and managed. Under current school structures and management practices, marginal improvements are possible; significantly raising student achievement is not. Accomplishing this requires dramatic improvements that…

This study is a replication of a 1983-84 study involving state activity in the area of staff development. Responses to a survey were received from the Chief Educational Officer in each of the 50 states. A comparison is made of changes since the 1984 study, focusing on four basic objectives: (1) Which states through law or accreditation currently…

The Idaho allocation plan for funds from the Library Service and Construction Act continues the emphasis on priorities listed in fiscal year 1994 and those that were described in the statewide plan for the years 1994 through 1998. These priorities are: (1) advocate for the creation of library districts with adequate tax support to serve the…

This study of integrated day care in the province of Alberta, Canada, involved observations and interviews at preschool sites in Calgary and Edmonton. The discussion resulting from the Calgary visits considers: combining funding from a provincial agency with the availability of hospital-sponsored mobile clinical services to support integration in…

In order to break the cycle of poverty for disadvantaged children and their families, action must be taken to redistribute income and other resources and improve services and institutions that serve the poor. Successful programs are the following: (1) comprehensive, flexible, and responsive; (2) staffed by workers who develop relationships of…

In 1989, a study was conducted to evaluate the effect which Assembly Bill (AB) 1725 funds had on faculty and staff development activities in the California community colleges. All 107 community colleges were surveyed to identify the four "most useful activities funded under AB 1725" and the "single greatest problem a college has…

It is proposed that schools receiving funds under Chapter 1 (Hawkins Stafford Act 1988) be required to spend at least 20 percent of their allocations on staff development. High-quality staff development programs would enable schools to improve instruction all day for all students. Chapter 1 schools would become centers of educational renewal and…

This paper suggests specific changes in Chapter 1 legislation (up for reauthorization in the fall of 1993) to make it more responsive not only to schools and students, but also to current school restructuring initiatives and new understandings of teaching, learning, and assessment. Recommendations are made in the areas of greater equity in access…

This paper recommends a research and action agenda for the federal Office of Special Education Programs in examining instructional technology for individuals with disabilities, particularly as those activities relate to "system" change. Staff development programs and curriculum reform are stressed as concrete components of system change.…

In response to the need for the continual development of those directly involved in the instruction of community college students, a Center for the Improvement of Instruction has been proposed that would be utilized by the staff of all 106 California community colleges. The objectives, programs, organization, and funding of this proposed center…

Agricultural extension is one component in an array including research, training, education, marketing, international trade, etc. which develop together to bring about growth, and sustained growth determines the priorities for extension. These priorities depend inevitably on the stage of development of a country or region, and on the current…

For more than 60 years, the Georgia State Board of Education has allotted funds to the University of Georgia for use in preparation of vocational teachers and administrators. Since passage of the 1963 Vocational Education Act, however, emphasis has been put on programs and services for specific groups of people, rather than on instructional areas…

This position paper synthesizes the findings of a review of the literature on career-related education and training and recommends the following nine statements as guiding principles of legislation concerning career-related education and training: lifelong learning programs will be most effective if they combine academic and vocational content;…