This report presents data on the status of state legislation in many areas of education. Data were collected from legislators, legislative staff, state newsletters, "StateNet," school board/teacher associations, and various media. Not all of the listed legislation was enacted. Legislation pertaining to the following topics was included:…

A study was done of how the College Construction Loan Insurance Association (Connie Lee) carried out its mission, particularly in its service to the 102 Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU). The study interviewed officials at Connie Lee, HBCUs and other schools, the Department of Education, and representatives of the bond insurance…

State legislation in Indiana requires that at least 30 semester hours of comparable general education courses fulfilling graduation requirements be available at and transferable among all state postsecondary educational institutions. A February 1994 report indicated that the 30 semester hours transferred among all institutions except Indiana…

As part of the restructuring drive toward a developmentally appropriate curriculum, restructuring has begun to be implemented through a nongraded organizational structure. After Kentucky mandated a nongraded structure for primary education, the Tennessee General Assembly passed legislation to allow nongraded primary schools. The Tennessee…

This audit evaluated State University of New York (SUNY) personnel practices under 1985 and 1987 state legislation which granted SUNY greater flexibility to set salaries in order to recruit and retain top faculty and administrative talent. The study concluded that SUNY has used flexibility prudently and that flexibility has not had a significant…

This report provides an overview of House Bill 1, 74th Texas Legislature, the appropriations act for the state of Texas for the 1996-97 biennium, focusing on those aspects of the bill devoted to higher education. Nearly 42 percent of the $80.2 billion budget is devoted to education, with $9.9 billion appropriated for higher education. The Higher…

Presenting guidelines for student attendance accounting developed by the Chancellor's Office of the California Community Colleges, this manual provides an update to the original guide published in 1983. Chapter 1 explains general items such as the academic calendar, admissions policies, student classification by enrollment status, and conditions…

Content-driven systemic school reform emerged in recent years as a major policy alternative in the United States. Major reforms include the establishment of state curriculum frameworks, the development of student assessments, and the adoption of new textbooks tied to the curriculum frameworks. Because successful implementation of content-driven…

The Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA) represents one of the most comprehensive pieces of educational reform legislation enacted in the United States. This article describes a series of unintended consequences that are the direct results of inconsistencies both between and within components of the reform. The inconsistencies have made certain…

Pennsylvania's House Resolution 43 of 1995 directs the Joint State Government Commission to report to the General Assembly on the feasibility of creating a voluntary residential school program for disadvantaged children. The Commission assembled a Working Group to consider this issue, and the group focused on poor children living in high crime…

In 1991, the Minnesota Legislature enacted the first legislation in the nation to permit creation of legally and financially independent public schools called charter schools. In February 1996, the Minnesota State Board of Education authorized an 18-month evaluation of Minnesota's charter schools. An evaluation team from the University of…

Guidelines are presented to ensure sex equity in the Washington state public schools. A legislative mandate requires the Superintendent of Schools to apply provisions of the sex equity statutes to any activity conducted by or on behalf of a school district. Every year, one third of the state's 296 school districts are required to complete an…

In November 1980, Massachusetts citizens voted to limit the allowable increase in local property tax revenue by supporting a state-ballot referendum named Proposition 2 1/2. This paper presents findings of a study that examined changes in both the sources and extent of funding for public education in Massachusetts communities during the first…

In 1990, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky passed comprehensive and controversial legislation designed to change the nature of public education throughout Kentucky. Because implementation of the Kentucky Education Reform Act depends on public support at both the state and local levels, it is important to know whether support for…

In the last decades, a number of states have passed legislation identifying the conditions under which state officials can and should intervene in the operation of school districts. This paper uses a grounded qualitative approach to develop a lexicon of concepts and a framework for comparing intervention laws across states. The paper analyzes the…