The federal government has been collecting, analyzing, and disseminating educational statistics for more than 130 years. Over time the focus has shifted from data gathering to research and development (R&D) to find more effective ways of educating children. Educational research and development, however, has not been held in high esteem by most…

Despite the growth of a variety of alternatives to the neighborhood high school, most students in big-city school systems still attend large comprehensive high schools that serve a particular residential area. The authors contend that the extreme concentration of educational need at these schools is often overlooked by policymakers, school reform…

As more and more children are being separated from their biological parents because of AIDS, substance abuse, mental and physical illness, incarceration, and child abuse and neglect, child welfare agencies are relying more often on kinship care as a viable option for out-of-home placements. In many cases, kinship care falls on the grandparents.…

This qualitative case study reports on processes and outcomes of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded System-Wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE) project at the California State University, Northridge (CSUN). It addresses a critical challenge in studying systemic reform in complex organizations: the lack of methodologies that…

Since the first toy libraries opened in the 1960s and 1970s to support families of children with special educational needs, they have expanded to serve broader communities. Toy libraries do more than lend toys: they can provide family support services and specialist support to families with children with special educational needs, benefit…

The mission of the Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools (CYFS) is to advance the conduct of high-quality interdisciplinary research to promote the intellectual, behavioral, and social-emotional development and functioning of individuals across educational, familial, and community contexts. Central to this is…

At a time when college degrees are increasingly a prerequisite for middle-class wages, less than 40 percent of college students are able to demonstrate proficiency on literacy tests, barely half of college students graduate on time, and many do not graduate at all. At the same time. the price of college continues to increase quickly and…

Farm to school (FTS) programs have been getting more and more attention these days. FTS programs aim to increase the supply of fresh, locally grown farm products served for meals and snacks in K-12 school environments, and tend to incorporate educational and experiential components designed to increase students' understanding of and engagement…

Supporting documentation for the grant and use of Federal Library Services and Construction Act (LSCA) funds in South Carolina is presented in this annual program. Under Title I, Library Services, the bulk of the grant money is planned for the following projects: (1) general administration (Project I-A); (2) library interpretation (Project I-B);…

The partial immersion program at Key Elementary School (Arlington, Virginia), where half the day is taught in English and half in Spanish, continued to be successful in its eighth year. Reasons for success include: dedication and in-depth understanding of immersion philosophy among principal, coordinator, teachers, and staff; innovations in both…

Four governor's regional literacy summits were held throughout Ohio in autumn 1992. At the summits, literacy and adult education program administrators and teachers, business representatives, government leaders, community agency workers, adult learners, and others expressed their opinions about Ohio's literacy needs and ways of meeting them. An…

These proceedings contain the papers presented during the opening and closing panels of the 1993 annual conference of the Commission of Professors of Adult Education (CPAE) as well as reports from the five special interest groups (SIGs) that met during the conference. The following papers/reports are included: "Opening Session: Introductory…

This book presents a rationale for developing new approaches to conceptualizing the costs associated with the implementation and operation of models supporting comprehensive, community-based support systems (CCBSS) for children. CCBSS are broad-based approaches that have no single model or specification for reform; the configuration of the model…

This consultants' report reviews the New College of the University of South Florida, a small liberal arts college which is unusual in its lack of specific general education requirements, and its attention to independent study. After reviewing a considerable list of strengths, concerns are identified including the need to ensure that every student…

This report seeks to explain the complex relationship between "cost" and "price" at independent private colleges and universities, and to demonstrate that federal student financial aid does not contribute to tuition and fee increases at such institutions. To support these results, 10 facts, drawn from multivariate statistical analyses of data from…