The California Budget Act of 2012, through a trailer bill known as Senate Bill (SB) 1041, contained significant reforms to the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. CalWORKs is California's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, a central component of the safety net that provides cash aid for…

The topic of special education can be confusing and frightening for parents who suspect their child has a disability or has difficulty learning. Parents in this situation want to know how to get help for their child. This guide is intended as a reference for people who have questions about special education for a child. It summarizes the basic…

The purpose of this brief is to understand the Illinois College and Career Readiness (CCR) Act in light of David Conley's college readiness model. Although not mentioned specifically by the Illinois statute, evaluation results gathered by the Office of Community College Research and Leadership (OCCRL) show alignment between a number of programs…

If education in Indiana is to dramatically improve, the systems and policies that collectively shape the learning experiences for students must be re-imagined. In the spring of 2011, the Indiana legislature passed IC 20-28-11.5, a new law relating to the evaluation of all certified teaching staff and administrators. Prior to this legislation,…

To inform states regarding their compliance with practices mandated by the Child Support Enforcement Amendments of 1984, this document provides a state by state analysis of the effects of the amendment on state child support laws. Information for each state is divided into two sections. The first section lists state laws that contain many or all…

This report of the Joint Committee on Educational Goals and Evaluation to the California Legislature discusses the need for educational goals and evaluation, the committee investigation, and the collection of information. As a result of the investigation, it was concluded that: (1) it is essential that the goal-setting process include the…

The Georgia School Counselor Evaluation Program was developed in response to a legislative requirement to provide annual performance evaluations for all school counselors. The evaluation program is composed of two instruments and a set of procedures to ensure equitable evaluation for all counselors. (SLD)

This interim evaluation of Louisiana's 1986-87 Early Childhood Development Program focuses primarily on ongoing second and third year projects, but also provides some descriptive information about the general characteristics and implementation strategies of first year projects. The purpose of the evaluation was to provide information to decision…

Parent involvement in New Mexico, and around the nation, is an essential element in the success of students and their schools. This simple point anchors the federal law known as the "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001" ("NCLB"). NCLB establishes state, district and school requirements designed to promote more effective parent…

Guidelines are presented to ensure sex equity in the Washington state public schools. A legislative mandate requires the Superintendent of Schools to apply provisions of the sex equity statutes to any activity conducted by or on behalf of a school district. Every year, one third of the state's 296 school districts are required to complete an…

The Cherry Creek School district (Englewood, Colorado) is a growing district of 37,000 students in the Denver area. The 1988 Colorado State School Finance Act required district-set proficiencies (standards), and forced agreement on a set of values for student knowledge and skills. State-adopted standards added additional requirements for the…

Wisconsin has been exploring educational targets or outcomes since 1992 in conjunction with legislation mandating student assessment. While the establishment of outcomes does not necessarily indicate that a school subscribes to an outcome-based education (OBE) philosophy, the two could go together. OBE requires identification of outcomes prior to…

An analysis was made of the methods being used to assess the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) of 1990. Although no single assessment plan has been developed, various activities are aimed at studying both the implementation and the impact of the law. Four assessment efforts are described as conducted by the following groups: (1) the Office of…

This volume provides the background of the Kentucky Education Reform Act and discusses the assessment and evaluation principles on which it is based. It reviews early steps in implementation of the Act's mandates, but was written before most of the battles of implementation had begun. (SLD)

As Kansas schools have begun to work through the Quality Performance Accreditation (QPA) process, educators have asked for guidance and the establishment of some uniform parameters. This publication is one of the guides designed to lead schools through the school improvement process called for in the QPA. Creating a school profile is a way of…