This document contains the speaking notes, spoken comments, and prepared papers of the participants in a 1997 symposium on utilization of vocational education and training (VET) research in VET decision making in Australia. The document begins with the "Introduction" (Chris Selby Smith). The next six sections contain the speaking notes…

This paper discusses policy issues faced by two-year colleges in the state of Washington during the first year of implementation of performance funding. Four key policy questions were reviewed: (1) the reward versus entitlement paradigm shift, which forces educators to alter expectations about "entitlement" to higher education funding…

The report, entirely in French, presents a study of the instructional approaches used for French native language instruction at the elementary and secondary school levels in five regions of Ontario (northwest, northeast, mid-north, central, and east). It examined the nature and degree of linguistic heterogeneity and the distinctive traits of the…

This document provides the proceedings a Postsecondary Symposium on School-to-Work. Participants were asked to identify and examine issues and offer policy recommendations relative to higher education and School-to-Work (STW), a growing national workforce development reform. The program included keynote presentations from leaders in the STW…

Child care and early education have been acclaimed by advocates in Great Britain and the United States as the key to economic and academic success, the basis for social justice and equality, a business opportunity, and the remedy for poverty, welfare dependency, crime, and educational failure. This book examines the research basis for these…

A study analyzed the role of state governments in implementing federal education and job training policies and in designing and implementing their own policies. A framework was developed for understanding policy instruments used to promote education and training objectives: mandates, inducements, capacity-building, and system-changing. Each type…

As part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act of 1965 the Congress has examined concerns that the process of applying for aid under the Act's Title IV has become increasingly complex and may itself be creating barriers to an equitable student aid delivery system. Under the current system students are required to provide financial…

At this conference on educational assessment, there was consensus among participants on the importance of the use of assessment to improve instruction, enhance the curriculum, and allow policy makers to measure achievement. There was less consensus about the best forms of assessment to use. The following conference papers are provided in this…

To understand how assessment, particularly alternative assessment, and practice interactions may differ among schools with different implementation contexts and different school cultures, this project is studying over time a set of schools representing different state and local policy contexts and including different student populations. Research…

This report outlines the overall design and implementation of Teacher Support Teams (TSTs), a concept developed under the auspices of the Massachusetts Board of Education to help administrators, teachers, and other school personnel and parents to identify at-risk students in regular education. TSTs, developed at individual schools and…

The predictions in "Workforce 2000" and "Civil Service 2000" were examined with regard to work and workers. Focus was on demographic changes that had occurred and were expected to occur in the civilian and federal labor force and were relevant to federal employment policy formation. Activities included review of demographic data and review of…

This newsletter issue focuses on the directions school/college partnerships need to take if they are to contribute to a genuine reform of American education. It begins by explaining what each sector gains, then briefly describes current models, and highlights programs that can serve as guideposts. It concludes with a discussion of how policymakers…

The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is an integrated study of public and private schools, school districts, principals, and teachers. The survey was first conducted in the 1987-88 school year, again in 1990-91, and will be repeated at 3-year intervals. The 1987-88 sample consisted of 56,000 teachers in 9,300 public schools and 11,000 teachers…

The Library of Congress hosted a 1-day conference, "Delivering Electronic Information in a Knowledge-Based Democracy" to explore the public policy framework essential to creating electronic information resources and making them broadly available. Participants from a variety of sectors contributed to wide-ranging discussions on issues…

This report addresses questions related to increasing the numbers of Latino teachers in U.S. classrooms and improving the preparation of those teachers and all teachers of Latino children. The report presents demographic data on Latinos concerning: percentage of total population, population projections, states of residence, median age, educational…