This guide discusses the participation of students with disabilities in the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS), the state's student testing program that is being implemented in response to the Education Reform Law of 1993. The statewide assessment program is designed to strengthen public education in Massachusetts and ensure that…

At a hearing in Honolulu (Hawaii), the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies of the U.S. Senate Committee on Appropriations received testimony on health, education, and employment and training programs serving the Native people of Hawaii. In July 1999, a federal government brief filed in a U.S. Supreme…

This project continued a 2-year project that had focused on development and implementation of training in content areas needed by staff from ABLE (Adult Basic and Literacy Education)-funded agencies in Pennsylvania. The project continued to coordinate the review and selection of training materials for professional development in designated content…

This newsletter issue reviews the research and literature on issues and best practices in programs to facilitate the transition of students with disabilities to adult life. First, the definition of transition services under the 1997 Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is presented and explained. Next, a…

This report addresses the future financing of higher education, focusing primarily on the states and presenting state-by-state data on important trends. It assesses the outlook for state finances, and, in the context of the ongoing needs of other major state services, for state support of higher education. In examining the forecast of state and…

This document describes Oklahoma Library Technology Network electronic resources for elementary age children. The first section provides a history of Oklahoma statewide shared databases. Oklahoma statewide information database contacts are listed in the second section. The third section presents information on InfoTrac Kid's Edition Online…

This report shares the initial Phase 1 results from a quantitative and qualitative study examining the feasibility and desirability of offering Minnesota students with limited English proficiency (LEP) a reading test with bilingual test items and answer choices. In considering the use of a native language translation accommodation to the Minnesota…

This book examines welfare reform, occasioned by the federal Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA), which abolished Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) and replaced it with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). It is based on research in Ohio, Kansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan that…

A study focused on results from seven of the earliest state welfare reform initiatives with some form of welfare time limit. Four programs--Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, and Wisconsin--- included benefit-termination time limits triggering cancellation of a family's entire welfare grant. Arizona and Indiana imposed benefit-reduction time limits,…

New Hampshire has adopted a standards-based statewide assessment, the New Hampshire Educational Improvement and Assessment Program (NHEIAP), which is designed to measure students' learning against proficiency standards at grades 3, 6, and 10. Because of the difficulty teachers had in interpreting the NHEIAP results, a custom-designed software…

This report summarizes the activities of the three components of Colorado's statewide extended campus during the 1998-99 academic year. The first, and largest, section focuses on the extended studies program, which has been Colorado's primary vehicle for the delivery of off-campus instruction since 1972. The report provides an overview of the…

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant has great potential for funding out-of-school time and community school initiatives. While the flexibility that states have in allocating TANF funds presents significant opportunity for innovation, it also presents a dizzying array of policy options. This strategy brief presents…

Some highlights included in the 1999 Annual Report of the Idaho Division of Vocational Rehabilitation (IDVR) are the following: (1) an all-time record number of people were served (10,363), and 1,442 people were rehabilitated and entered employment, close to the 1998 record; (2) a collaborative effort with the Division of Human Resources was…

This publication provides sample components of the Ohio Career Passport, including the rationale and purpose of each. Section 1 contains examples of the letter of verification, a letter from a school or district administrator, which confirms that the individual is a student at the school. Written on school letterhead, it sends the signal to the…

This study examined the experiences of 15 elementary schools in Washington state demonstrating relatively slow improvement on the reading and mathematics sections of the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. Since the passage of educational reform legislation in 1993, Washington has undertaken a systematic overhaul of its K-12 public school…