During 1972-74, three separate but interrelated statewide policies were enacted providing the legal basis for moving Oregon public schools and the postsecondary institutions preparing educational personnel for these schools to a competency-based orientation. These three policy areas dealt with 1) changes in the minimum requirements for graduation…

This document contains an introduction to the Ohio Integrated Technical and Academic Competency (ITAC) and Specialization ITAC; an overview of the electrical trades; a list acknowledging professionals who helped develop the competency list; and the comprehensive list of professional or occupational competencies deemed essential for graduates to be…

This handbook provides guidelines for the operation of local special education programs for Alaskan children with disabilities. It addresses: (1) the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Amendments of 1997 and basic concepts of special education; (2) identification of students with disabilities, referral, screening programs, and…

Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School, which is located in the rural New England town of Franklin, Massachusetts, is a school of "choice" that students elect to attend. All of the school's 850 students must have a career/technical focus for their studies. Most of Tri-County's ninth-graders are unprepared for high school,…

Describes a geography literacy quiz project developed by the Geography Club at California State University (Fresno). Reports that poor quiz results sparked interest in developing programs to ensure geographic literacy. Comments on a program at Dos Palos (California) High School that will require geography proficiency examinations for graduation by…

Like most states, Pennsylvania has a state accountability system that is aligned with the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and requires that students reach adequate yearly progress (AYP) goals on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) in reading and mathematics at the end of grades 3, 5, 8, and 11 in…

This report is intended to give the reader an overview of the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) data for the school year 2003-04 through tables of estimates for public, private, and BIA-funded schools and their staff. The tables contain estimates from schools, teachers, principals, districts, and school library media centers for public, private,…

This report, mandated by Ohio's 119th General Assembly, examines the fairness and appropriateness of the state's ninth-grade proficiency test. Under the assumption that it is indeed fair and appropriate to have a single, statewide graduation standard for all students, the study focuses on the issue of whether the test, as developed and…

The Ad Hoc Committee on the Cornell University (New York) College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) Student Computing Competencies was appointed in the fall of 1995 to determine (1) what all CALS undergraduate students should know about computing and related technologies; (2) how the college can make it possible for students to develop these…

The career magnet high school programs of the New York City (NYC) public school system were evaluated in an experimental study. The experimental design compared the ninth-grade performance of students randomly selected for magnet schools with those who "lost the lottery." It included 91 pools of students: 3,272 with average reading…

This study examines the October 1991 exit-level Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) mathematics results of 18,290 11th-grade Hispanic Americans, African Americans, and White non-Hispanic Americans from Texas urban districts. Substantial differences existed in the passing rates of the three ethnic groups. The passing rate for White…

Two studies investigated the performance of Florida high school seniors on the Tests of General Educational Development (GED Tests). The GED Test Battery, as revised in 1980, consists of 290 items in 5 subject areas (writing, social studies, science, reading, and mathematics). In the first study, the performance of 1,200 Florida students was…

In it's first year, Project Aprendizaje served 250 students from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico at Seward Park High School in Manhattan (New York). Project objectives were to improve participants' language skills in Spanish and English, help participants successfully complete content area courses needed for graduation, and provide career…

This monograph reports on an exploratory investigation of the impact of minimum competency testing on local schools. The implementation and impacts of test requirements in three Missouri and four Ohio local school districts are studied through interviews with teachers and administrators and through the analysis of written materials on the test and…

In 1973, compulsory province-wide grade 12 examinations, administered in Alberta since 1906, were dropped; teachers were given the responsibility of assigning final grades. Mandated by the Legislative Assembly of Alberta in 1976, this study by the Minister's Advisory Committee on Student Achievement (MACOSA) surveyed education professionals,…