Many youth face the following educational and economic barriers to success: (1) increased high school dropout rates; (2) adolescent pregnancy; (3) chronic unemployment; (4) poverty; (5) drug abuse; (6) suicide; and (7) crime and delinquency. The Atlantic Community College (New Jersey) Youth Corps Program, a successful conservation and service…

The reading learning objectives for ninth graders contained in this volume are congruent with the Texas "State Board of Education Rules for Curriculum." These objectives and the measurement specifications are provided for use by teachers and other educators responsible for student instruction and for test development specialists involved…

A survey of state commissions concerned with educational excellence showed that the majority of these commissions are not involved with the problems of at-risk youth. The definition of at-risk youth includes the following: (1) young people from poor families of all races, including minorities and immigrants, who face discriminatory policies and…

Public Law 94-142 requires that local education agencies (LEAs) generating less than $7,500 through the child count formula either submit consolidated applications or use the state education agency (SEA) to provide child services directly. A survey of state directors of special education in 50 states sought to address the status of interagency…

An overview is provided of apprenticeship programs offered by the California community colleges. First, the report describes apprenticeships, indicating that modern programs include school-based supplemental instruction to ensure that apprentices possess skills and knowledge beyond just the manual tasks related to the occupation that are learned…

The New Jersey Adult Reading Project was a state project involving more than 500 New Jersey adult educators from 98 adult education programs around the state. The primary objective of the project was to develop a competency-based adult reading management system that would allow program completers to achieve the following goals: continue their…

This manual is designed to assist school personnel in their efforts to increase the number of women and nontraditional students who are recruited into and retained in nontraditional occupational preparation programs. Discussed first are the nature and scope of the problem of retaining disadvantaged students in nontraditional vocational programs,…

A project was undertaken to identify, develop, and test the effectiveness of a limited number of self-contained, individual learning modules about consumer topics that are especially appropriate to a variety of industrial arts courses given in secondary schools in Texas. Included among the project activities were the following: (1) identification…

The Equal Goals in Occupations (EGO) project is a program of training in sex equity issues and skills for vocational education personnel in Hawaii's 39 public secondary schools, delivered over a five-year period (l978-l982). To evaluate the project, data were gathered from current and former EGO project participants and vocational enrollment…

This document consists of three closely related reports, dealing with "State Governments", "Regional Councils", and "Local Econcomic Development Agencies", respectively, together with a fourth document, a preceding overview. These documents draw from results of a project to identify successful approaches to coordinating economic development and…

This paper describes the characteristics of the Minimum Skills Diagnostic Tests (MSDTs) components of the statewide testing program in North Carolina. The MSDTs' validity, method for deriving test scores, reliability and other statistics, test content, and test norms are discussed. These tests--given in grades 3, 6, and 8--assess an individual's…

Community education can be characterized as a flexible community process for addressing the community's educational needs; it is designed by local residents to meet local needs. This guide presents an overview of community education and offers some ideas for drafting and passing legislation for community education and beginning and carrying out…

In preparation for 1989 reauthorization hearings, the General Accounting Office (GAO) examined how well the Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984 is being implemented. The GAO reviewed the vocational education activities in six socioeconomically diverse states, visiting 20 vocational education institutions and observing 70 local…

Providing a cross-cultural perspective on governmental involvement in the provision of day care services, this study explores early childhood programs in five countries. Chapter 1 is a brief introduction, Chapter 2 describes state supported child care in Denmark. Chapter 3 describes playgroups in England. Chapter 4 concerns state and municipal…

The National Governors' Association's Making America Work initiative had a dual focus. Five task forces spent a year developing action agendas to address five barriers to self-sufficiency and productivity: teenage pregnancy, adult illiteracy, welfare dependency, alcohol and drug abuse, and dropping out of school. The second phase of the initiative…