This report from a 1996 Child Care Action Campaign national audioconference concerns approaches taken by Wisconsin and Minnesota in designing and implementing federally funded child care subsidy systems. Wisconsin Works phases out Aid to Families with Dependent Children cash assistance and redirects funds into job training, child care, and health…

An accountability system is proposed for the education system in Washington. Reform efforts in Washington have been designed to create a school-centered system in which state standards motivate teachers, parents, and principals to search for more effective ways to help students learn. Drawing on the experience of other states, recommendations are…

In 1990, in response to court orders, Kentucky took the unprecedented step of throwing out the state's entire public educational system. Using outside consultants, they fashioned a model for education reform that many experts have hailed as the best in the United States. The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) has become a beacon of hope for a…

The issue of high standards and high expectations for public school students has even reached the kindergarten level of instruction. The paper suggests that the informal readiness approach can be used with a more formal curriculum in order to prepare students for state mandated testing to ensure readiness for first grade. Many educators believe…

This study examined the extent to which students with disabilities are included in accountability systems in states in which there are high stakes for educational systems. Conducted through a World Wide Web search of states' education Web sites and direct links to their Web sites, the study examined the indicators on which states collect…

A study examined state Individualized Education Program (IEP) forms to determine the extent to which they include documentation of standards and assessments. All 50 states were asked to send their IEP Forms and to indicate whether they were required, recommended, or simply sample forms. Out of the 41 states with IEP forms, only 5 states…

"Michigan's State Technology Plan (1998)" includes 21 Recommendations and 14 Belief Statements that focus on incorporating technology into the curriculum, training teachers and other staff members, funding educational technology programs, and establishing technical standards and a telecommunications infrastructure on which educators can…

Arizona has nearly 25 percent of the charter schools in the nation. These Arizona schools present something new: the first system approaching comprehensive school choice in the real world. This edited volume assembles the perspectives of social scientists and education practitioners and gives the first published account of the Arizona charter…

This is an annotated resource guide for those interested in recent hunger and food insecurity studies. Objectives, methods, and key findings of each study are summarized, and contact information for obtaining the report is given. Studies are grouped by survey location and listed chronologically by publication or release date within each geographic…

A study used 1999-2000 data from Accelerated Reader and STAR Reading to assess students' reading practice, growth in reading performance, and effects of Reading Renaissance training on students' reading development. The study included 10 schools that participated in the 1998-99 study and 27 additional schools. Data from 7876 students enrolled in…

In 1998, as part of a major 3-year Reading Initiative, the Albertson Foundation provided $24.5 million to improve the reading performance of all Idaho elementary, middle, and junior high students. The reading components of School Renaissance (SR), a comprehensive school improvement program, include Accelerated Reader (AR) learning information…

This brief addresses the benefits and concerns raised by the use of high stakes testing as the centerpiece of new accountability systems. It offers some recommendations for policymakers seeking to incorporate such tests into state accountability systems. High stakes tests can clarify and establish challenging performance expectations for students,…

This brief makes the case for thoughtful district- or school-driven assessment systems that complement and go beyond what statewide testing systems are able to accomplish. It describes important attributes of model local assessment programs and presents the necessary steps for building a local assessment program that will elicit information that…

This collection of essays addresses the issues that have arisen in the development and implementation of national and state standards in science, mathematics, history, economics, and the English language arts. The chapters are: (1) "The 1997 Mathematics Standards War in California" (Hung-Hsi Wu); (2) "Judging State Standards for…

This report describes and compares different methods used to calculate and report dropout rates; discusses advantages and disadvantages of each method; explains what is known about dropout students; and outlines actions states are taking to reduce dropout rates. Data are presented on whether dropout rates are lower now than in the 1980s in…