This publication highlights how state leaders tackle data interoperability with the emergence of data standards for student information, assessment, digital content, and other educational applications. While states are at various maturity levels for interoperability, each state shares goals for interoperability, the drivers for those goals,…

California's school accountability and support system, the Statewide System of Support (System of Support), was designed to transform California's approach to school improvement. Rather than focusing on punitive consequences for underperformance, the System of Support is designed to provide education leaders and educators with needed support to…

States are in various stages of reforming how they evaluate their educators, all striving for a new system that can assess a range of abilities and practices over long periods of time and capture the full nature of an educator's performance. The strongest systems look at teaching in a more comprehensive way than evaluations have done in the past,…

This research determined the extent of implementation and the perceived effectiveness of evaluation practices required by federal legislation for vocational education. The respondents reported they have either fully implemented or are in the process of implementing the mandated evaluation activities and indicated a high level of usefulness of the…

As a means of implementing program activities, the Maryland State Department of Education has made assumptions regarding the development of students' thinking abilities. These assumptions and Maryland's plan of implementation are presented and discussed. (CT)

Upon completion of a collaboratively generated plan for curriculum development in the state of Victoria, Australia, in the early 1980s, the state's education ministry appointed a committee to create and carry out a strategy for implementing the newly developed policies. The committee consisted of representatives from the state's education…

Information was collected about the current status of state literacy and basic skills efforts through a comprehensive survey of state literacy initiatives conducted in the summer of 1990. A total of 390 responses were received from the more than 400 surveys sent to governors' offices, state agencies, and Statewide literacy organizations. Results…

Describes the role of South Dakota's governor in initiating technology plans for schools that would promote distance education. Discusses a conclave of leaders in technology and distance education that addressed the successful implementation of the Digital Dakota Network, a statewide intranet developed to help students, empower the workforce, and…

At the request of the U.S. House of Representatives, this study identified problems confronting child protective service (CPS) units, which affect the system's capacity to protect children from abuse and neglect. State and local responses to these problems, and opportunities for the federal government to assist in improving the system's capacity…

This study was undertaken to describe efforts in three states to create customized vocational training for specific client firms as part of economic development efforts. Approximately 70 persons from education, business, and state government were interviewed; documents from the three states (Ohio, South Carolina, and New York) were reviewed; and,…

This manual for state agencies suggests law and policy changes that meet the new Federal requirements under Title I of the Family Support Act, passed in 1988 and the Title IV-D of the 1974 Social Security Act, both of which enable states to act to locate parents and enforce child support orders. Chapter 1 of this report is the introduction.…

State and local governments have been in the front lines of dealing with the adverse effects of recent economic change. States have embarked on a dual approach to economic adjustment. First, they have established programs that respond to economic change and cushion its deleterious effects on communities and individuals. Second, they have attempted…

This report focuses on the new intergovernmental relationships developing between cities, States and the Federal government as funds are "block granted." The first chapter discusses the historical background of federalism and the redistributive role of government, and puts the "new federalism" in perspective. The following…

This digest presents highlights from the Winter 1998 New Directions for Community Colleges volume titled "Determining the Economic Benefits of Attending Community College." The passage of the Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act (VATEA) in 1990 gave incentives to states to develop accountability measures. Attempts are…

This report presents the findings from the first of three rounds of research in a projected 3-year study of the way state governments have begun to implement the new Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training Program (JOBS). JOBS is a part of the Family Support Act of 1988 and provides employment, education, and training services that recipients…