Because of recent educational reform efforts aimed at creating more "educated persons" at the college level, a descriptive-correlational study was made to describe the aspired and the assessed cognitive level of instruction and determine the relationship of these variables to attitude toward teaching at higher cognitive levels among…

An evaluation of North Carolina's public school system is provided in this report, which uses student academic performance as a primary indicator of educational effectiveness. The first two sections describe characteristics of North Carolina and its schools, with a focus on public school population, enrollment, and funding. Section 3 focuses on…

In light of the 10th anniversary of "A Nation at Risk," this report attempts to answer some of the questions about the southern states' educational accomplishments of the past decade. After the introduction, three sections address the following questions: (1) What is different today? (2) Why are we disappointed? and (3) What are we…

In its effort to meet the challenges of the National Education Goals, New Hampshire is emphasizing three major goals: develop an outcome-based assessment program; formulate major reforms in science and mathematics education; and support the "break the mold" schools program. All state policies and programs are guided by common themes:…

Schools are being increasingly encouraged to "restructure" to improve education in schools. However, restructuring has many different meanings for different people. This book addresses the origins, purposes, and methods of restructuring schools and clarifies the definition of restructuring. It also advocates comprehensive change in thinking about…

Educational leaders are developing standards to specify what students should know and be able to achieve in key subject areas. This document examines an important challenge of standards-based reform--that of creating a process to develop standards. Information is based on studies conducted by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE)…

This publication describes issues in the policy debate about opportunity-to-learn (OTL) standards. OTL standards are designed to represent what schools and teachers should do if the new curriculum and achievement standards, as outlined by National Education Goal 3, are to be met. Goal 3 calls for competency in challenging subject matter for all…

This paper defines Total Quality Management (TQM), discusses its origins, and identifies its strengths and weaknesses as they apply to higher education. The paper defines TQM as a philosophy of organizations that defines quality and improves organizational performance and administrative systems. The system originated from statistical quality…

A concept map is a graph in which the nodes represent concepts, the lines between the nodes represent relations, and the labels on the lines represent the nature of the relations. Concept maps have been used to assess students' knowledge structures, especially in science education. Two concept mapping techniques, constructing a map and filling in…

In July 1996, California began its Class Size Reduction (CSR) Initiative. To gauge the effectiveness of this initiative, an analysis of its objectives and an overview of proposed strategies for evaluating CSR are presented here. An outline of the major challenges that stand between CSR and its mission are provided. These include logistical…

The progress states have made toward fulfilling their requirements under Title I of the Improving America's Schools Act is reported. Some states are reporting that they have developed content standards for some subjects, but not for others. In some states, both local school district and state standards are being developed. In all, 43 states had…

Recently there has been legislation aimed at aligning education and industry interests to better meet the needs of students, workers, and employers. After the passage of the Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Act in 1990 and its reauthorization in 1992, the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education jointly initiated funding for 22 projects to…

This report provides an analysis of academic achievement in Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Findings show that more students in the South are taking more challenging courses to prepare for college and careers. The percentage of high school graduates completing 4 years of English and 3 years each of social studies, mathematics, and…

An assessment was made of the potential need for postsecondary education at different levels in Oklahoma. The objective of this assessment was to provide an overall framework within which the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education could establish priorities for the development of new learning sites. The assessment did not attempt to examine…

This literature review, created for the Washington State Community Colleges, provides a resource for faculty to use in selecting and constructing evaluation methods and assessment instruments for distance education. It was also devised to provide a starting place and tool kit for faculty to use in developing courseware and instruction in other…