In the seven years since former U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett helped develop "virtual charter schools" that provide educational programs to charter school students via the Internet (Kafer, 2003), the number of these schools has rapidly increased. At least 90 (or around 3%) of the almost 3,000 charter schools in operation in…

Advanced Placement (AP), launched in 1955 by the College Board as a program to offer gifted high school students the opportunity to complete entry-level college coursework, has since expanded to encourage a broader array of students to tackle challenging content. At the end of the year-long course, students may opt to sit for the course-related…

This collection of selected state policies covers the entire range of educational issues. It furnishes descriptions of legislative bills, arranged by category, from all 50 states. Essentially, the information in this report is raw data rapidly processed to be released in printed form at the earliest possible date. Editing has been kept to a…

This report was produced in response to Rider 49 of the 2001 General Appropriations Act, which directed the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to study the effects of the funding formula on institutions of higher education with fewer than 10,000 students and determine the adequacy of the funding formula for these institutions in comparison…

This handbook provides arts specialists and gifted coordinators with procedures for identifying students who are gifted in music. All personnel who are developing district identification procedures and trained individuals who will be involved in the screening and identification of gifted children in the area of music should read this handbook. To…

This book, produced by the Education Commission of the States (ECS) Clearinghouse, is a compilation and summary of the status of several hundred pre-K-12 level education bills introduced in state legislative bodies in 1999-2000. The summaries are organized alphabetically by category beginning with bills on access and ending with vouchers. Each…

Calling for action on a wide range of children's issues, this guide of the National Association of Child Advocates (NACA) delineates the state legislative agendas of 41 of its members from 33 states. The reference guide is presented in three sections. Section 1 contains the legislative priorities by topic area in a chart format indicating the…

In 1998, the Mississippi Legislature amended Mississippi Code Section 37-17 concerning the requirements for local school district professional development programs. The Department of Education then revised this portion of the model to reflect the statutory changes. This handbook contains the definition and purpose of professional development and…

This primer is designed to help charter school leaders in Ohio in coordinating testing and test data reporting procedures as required by state and federal guidelines. The report discusses the roles and responsibilities of charter schools under Ohio's new accountability system and what charter schools need to know to administer the tests of the…

Increasing numbers of students must be given medications at school, with a variety of staff assisting these children. In order to standardized the format for instructing personnel in medication administration procedures, an instructional program was developed for those in schools and out-of-home child care settings who are giving medications that…

This report responds to a Minnesota legislative requirement that required the Commissioner, with the advice of the Medical Education and Research Costs (MERC) Advisory Committee, to "develop a system to recognize those teaching programs which serve higher numbers or high proportions of public program recipients and...report to the legislative…

This bulletin presents findings from an analysis of laws enacted in 1996 and 1997 to target serious and violent juvenile crime. The review of the laws included telephone interviews with key personnel in each state. Overall, findings show that states continue to modify age/offense transfer criteria, with some states beginning to study the impact of…

In 1999, the LegiSchool Project planned to conduct the 12th in its series of televised Town Hall Meetings to provide a forum in which California high school students, educators, and legislators can engage in face-to-face dialogue about problems of mutual interest. For 1999, the topic is standards and tests in California high schools. This guide…

The number of children in foster care has nearly doubled in recent years. Despite reform efforts, the U.S. child welfare system is not increasing the number of children who get adopted. The federal government spends over $12 billion annually on child welfare programs, but the growing government bureaucracy has allowed the problems to worsen. The…

This document is comprised of 9 issues of a newsletter providing information on current child advocacy initiatives and accomplishments. Each issue describes one local or state child advocacy program or initiative and its accomplishments. The issues of this publication represent a series of short information pieces to highlight the National…