This document contains three commissioned papers and other materials from a 2-day conference. "Politics, Policy, Practice and Personal Responsibility: Adult Education in an Era of Welfare Reform" (Deborah D'Amico) examines the relationship between literacy, poverty, and welfare reform and the implications of those relationships for…

The financing of vocational education and training (VET) in Finland was examined. The analysis included consideration of the following: the legal, political, economic, and administrative background to financing of the VET system; European Union, state, regional, municipal, and social partner funding of the various types of initial and continuing…

This document is composed of an overview of the 1998 Kids Count data book, a pocket guide summarizing findings, and information sheets on various aspects of child care. The overview discusses the need for child care, examines its cost, presents information on the quality of available child care, describes potential solutions to make child care…

This report explores the diverse ways that libraries are currently supporting distance learning, both in its traditional and newer Internet-based forms. Based on interviews with administrators and staff, the following "Reports from the Field" reflect developments in public institutions: "UNET (University of Maine System Network)…

Because emotional well-being is increasingly being recognized as a predictor of success in school, family, and work life, many are advocating that emotional intelligence be promoted as early as elementary school. Emotional intelligence involves two competencies important to career success: (1) the ability to recognize personal and others' feelings…

This Kids Count report examines statewide trends in the well-being of North Carolina's children. The statistical portrait is based on 16 indicators of well-being: (1) infant mortality rate; (2) infants born with low birth weight; (3) births to single teens; (4) children without insurance; (5) high school dropout rate; (6) SAT scores; (7) high…

This report provides enrollment trend information for public four-year colleges and universities for the period fall 1990 through fall 1997. Several trends are highlighted: during this period, total enrollment fell 0.5 percent to 5.77 million students; enrollment of racial/ethnic minorities rose 24.5 percent; white enrollment fell 10.8 percent.…

Education in the United States faces important problems in the large and increasing enrollments in secondary schools, in the wide variety of interests and the extensive range of capacities represented in the pupils coming to these schools, and in the peculiar needs by pupils of early adolescent age for advice and guidance on social, moral,…

A discussion of the philosophy of open learning in higher education, particularly in the Australian context, looks at a variety of issues, including societal pressures to redirect higher education, the teaching role of faculty, student-centered curricula, lifelong learning, need for new student assessment strategies, and student attitudes toward…

A number of common and essentially economic issues facing British universities are identified, and economic theory is applied to understanding and resolving them. They include demand for university education; foreign students; cost-effective operation; efficiency; optimum institutional size; academic and administrative staff utilization; school…

The General Assembly determined that a higher education system that failed to allow the transfer of seemingly identical or similar courses increased the time to degree and cost to the student and the state. It was also the perception of the General Assembly that public higher education was not taking adequate steps to remedy the problem.…

This occasional paper is intended to serve as a supplement to the larger annual volume, "Monitoring the Future National Survey Results on Drug Use, 1975-2006: Volume I: Secondary School Students." This supplement contains the graphic presentation of the trends in drug use for various demographic subgroups, namely those defined by gender, college…

Results from the Monitoring the Future's 2005 nationwide survey of 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students are given in this report. Recent trends in the use of licit and illicit drugs are emphasized, as well as trends in the levels of perceived risk and personal disapproval associated with each drug. This study has shown these beliefs and attitudes to…

In 1970, prior to the 1972 enactment of Title IX, there were only 2.5 women's teams per school and a total of only about 16,000 female intercollegiate athletes. In 1977/1978, the academic year preceding the mandatory compliance date for Title IX, the number of varsity sports for women had grown to 5.61 per school. A decade later, in 1988, the…

This 2004 Annual Report to Congress has two volumes. Volume 1 focuses on the children and students being served under IDEA and provides profiles of individual states' special education environments and early intervention settings. It also includes tables of states rank-ordered by their reported data on exiting, dropouts, educational environments,…