Investigated whether block grants improve decision making through the decentralization of control of social programs to state governments. Found that department bureaucrats have sought to protect the new flexibility from encroachment by elected officials through the rationalization and systematization of decision-making procedures. (Author/ABB)

The author covers sources six sources of information on careers: (1) state career information systems, (2) federal and state publications, (3) the popular press, (4) private sector publications, (5) the community, and (6) commercial career resources. (CH)

To counter elementary school children's ignorance about farming, a 1981 Agriculture in the Classroom Task Force recommended that states create their own groups and awareness programs. This article describes cooperative efforts between private and public sector organizations in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Oregon, and Virginia. An address and…

Details planning and implementation of a two-year project by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction to demonstrate online circulation procedures at two pilot sites--an elementary and a high school media center. Benefits of an automated circulation program are discussed, and recommendations for similar sites are offered. (MES)

The Illinois Model has been developed in the hopes of again producing excellence in education. The model provides for inservice experience to update teachers, the use of staff development activities to develop curricular instructional materials, and effective dissemination of the materials. (JOW)

A survey seeking basic information about elementary school foreign-language instruction in Michigan indicated that the programs generally have goals relevant to current literature, are diverse, are generally meeting their goals, and are well accepted by educators, parents, and the community. (CB)

Attention and efforts must be focused on the prevention of childhood injuries. Governmental agencies must increase their involvement. One model of such involvement is a program in Massachusetts which implemented a strategic injury prevention plan. Schools, health departments and other child service agencies must pool their resources for this…

The article highlights some innovative and important approaches to employee training and retraining in anticipation of and in response to technological change. These include both collectively bargained arrangements and new state initiatives that are suggestive for future developments. (CH)

A Missouri proposal that parents be allowed to set up special savings accounts for their children's college education that would be exempt from state income tax is described. It is compared to a plan in Michigan that allows parents to prepay tuition at colleges in the state. (MLW)

Examines the responses from the state libraries to literacy issues studied in 1985 in two surveys--one of state initiatives compiled as background for the Second National Conference on Urban Literacy, and a survey of the chief officers of state library agencies. The California Literacy Campaign is described in detail. (EM)

The Education Commission of the States has identified several crucial factors that ensure successful school improvement programs, including political support, pressure for improvement, belief in students' learning ability, high-quality programs, state-level implementation strategies, and adequate resources. State agencies must also promote school…

The case study explores the support for, introduction of, and content in temperance courses in schools in Nova Scotia between 1880-1930 by examining national temperence organizations to assess outside influence and by examining comments of educators to appraise their sentiments. (SB)

Summarizes the research on school effectiveness and identifies state policy implications followed by a discussion of current state education policies and their relationship to school effectiveness research. (MLF)

Description of the development of a computer-based resource-sharing program in Massachusetts highlights past planning efforts, development of philosophical basis of network, network activities (development and linking of bibliographic databases, document request and delivery procedures, computer literacy/training for librarians), and issues…

General background on the competency-based movement with special reference to New York State and information on both the political and educational dimensions of the movement in its present stage of development are presented. (MM)