In 1984 an evaluation team examined the Maryland Functional Testing Program (MFTP), a statewide competency-based, criterion-referenced testing program that was instituted to limit awarding of high school diplomas to those students who had earned scores above cut scores on a series of achievement tests. This article examines the procedures the…

This report, derived from a survey of foreign language supervisors in each state and the District of Columbia, provides an overview of the various state initiatives and activities in foreign languages and international studies. The report is intended to provide some useful information to national policymakers, state governments, and concerned…

An Ontario program providing sets of problem-solving activities for native French speakers helps students in grades 7-12 enrich their language proficiency in both French and English. The guides developed as part of the program emphasize language as a tool for thought, social interaction, and artistic expression, and focus on the integration of…

The role played by the state government in Victoria, Australia, in public education changed considerably when the Labour Party took office in the early 1980s. Seeking to redress social imbalances and inequities, the government sought broad decentralization of decision making in education, with an increased role for teachers, parents, and students.…

The process of developing the curriculum and determining educational policy in the schools of the state of Victoria, Australia, has shifted in recent years from being a function of the state bureaucracy to being a matter for collaborative decision-making among parents, students, teachers, administrators, and others involved in education. To ensure…

The purpose of the Ministerial Paper No. 6 and Schools Project is to develop strategies and materials for use by individual schools in the state of Victoria, Australia, as they plan and implement curricula consistent with the guidelines in the Victoria Ministry of Education's Ministerial Paper 6. The strategies focus on improving the balance and…

A guide to the opportunities at private colleges and universities in New York State through the Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) is presented. The HEOP is designed to meet the special needs of students from disadvantaged backgrounds through screening, testing, counseling, tutoring, teaching, and financial assistance. Generally, students…

This report identifies the methods and issues in the evaluation of student writing in classrooms and large scale assessments using an analytical scoring system from the Illinois Inventory of Educational Progress (IIEP). This guide is written for staff in state offices of education conducting large-scale writing assessments, and also for personnel…

This document contains guidelines, procedures, and administrative requirements based on the regulations, assurances, and certifications in the South Carolina Three-Year State Plan for Vocational-Technical Education as adopted by the State Board of Education. The guide contains an introduction (section I) and seven main sections. Section II…

Based on perceptions from interviews and the available literature, this report examines the manner in which Oklahoma's libraries and library-related institutions or agencies deal with continuing professional library education. A discussion of providers and consumers describes the provision of staff and career development opportunities by library…

The document contains testimony presented in a 1987 Senate committee hearing on two education bills. The first bill, entitled the Jacob K. Javits Gifted and Talented Children and Youth Education Act, is designed to establish a discretionary grant program within the Department of Education to provide funds to local education agencies for programs…

This report provides information on the following: (1) the percentage of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) households receiving food stamp benefits, both nationally and by state; and (2) some of the reasons why the AFDC households in some states may not have higher food stamp participation rates. In fiscal year 1986, 83.4 percent of…

This annual report of the National Advisory Council on Adult Education highlights the activities undertaken by the Council during Fiscal Year 1987. These activities included the following: (1) co-sponsorship with the University of Pennsylvania of a symposium, "Towards Defining Literacy" (an overview of the work of the symposium is…

A program of voluntary national service intended to create new opportunities for citizens to serve their country and each other is proposed by the Democratic Leadership Council. The proposed program would create a Citizens Corps, essentially a new GI Bill, expanded to include civilian as well as military service to the nation. It would be…

The conference on "Support for Family Caregivers" reported in this document was designed to identify, encourage the development of, and disseminate information about effective approaches for strengthening the capacity of families to care for their impaired relatives. The first of two presentations in the opening plenary session reviews the needs…