Recognizing that cross-national information and analysis can contribute to the improvement of policy development related to quality early childhood education and care (ECEC), the Education Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) launched the Thematic Review of Early Childhood Education and Care Policy in 1998.…

This book analyzes the responses of five states (Florida, Mississippi, New York, Washington, and Wisconsin) to challenges posed by the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 to alter state welfare programs and management systems. Using case studies, the book highlights similarities and differences in the states'…

This document contains three papers from an international conference on "ways and means for more employment." The first paper, "Employment Policy Comparisons and Policy Advice" (Ulrich Walwei), covers the German labor market in the second half of the 1990s and requirements for longer-term employment success through coping with…

The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 requires that workforce investment areas establish individual training accounts (ITAs) that provide vouchers customers can use to pay for training. The United States Department of Labor is supporting the ITA experiment, during which new customers determined to be eligible for training will be randomly…

This paper explores educational stratification of unemployment in early labor market career; its institutional embeddedness in specific education and employment systems; and youth unemployment in France (F), the United Kingdom (UK), and West Germany (G), which greatly differ relative to major institutional characteristics of education systems and…

The mathematics achievement of career-bound students at High Schools That Work (HSTW) sites in 1996 was compared to performance levels at HSTW sites in 1993-1994. Forty-nine percent of the 260 HSTW sites improved their average mathematics scores over the period, with the percentage of career-bound students meeting the HSTW mathematics goal of 295…

The academic achievement of students in business and marketing programs at High Schools That Work (HSTW) sites in 1996 was compared to performance levels in 1994. Between 1994 and 1996, the average reading scores of business students at HSTW sites increased from 271 to 279, and their average mathematics scores increased from 286 to 290. A higher…

The impact of California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKS), which was passed to increase California welfare recipients' participation in welfare-to-work (WTW) activities, was examined. The impact study consisted of a nonexperimental program evaluation that used statistical models to estimate causal effects and a simulation…

Recruitment and selection practices in the private sector were examined through a literature review to identify strategies that human resource (HR) departments can use in designing new employee recruitment and selection processes or improving existing processes. The following were among the findings: (1) new employees recruited by using informal…

Noting that few studies have examined the relationship between quality of early childhood education (ECE) programs in India and the impact of such programs on young children's learning competencies, this study explored the relationship between various components of programs in the southeastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu and other family and…

Reduced training costs, worldwide accessibility, and improved technological capabilities have made Web-based training (WBT) a viable alternative to classroom instruction. WBT enables businesses to cut their training costs. Efficiency of operation is another major advantage of WBT. The flexibility of time, place, and programs offered via WBT…

Data from the 1992 National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) were used to assess the prospects of California's welfare population versus those of the U.S. welfare population. Welfare recipients were found to have substantially lower basic skills than other adults do. Although 58% of California adults with basic skills and demographic characteristics…

This report details a study combining qualitative and quantitative research tools to compare the functioning of schools in China, Guinea, India, and Mexico and in different development contexts within each country. The focus of the analysis was on the critical factors determining the quality of the interactive process taking place in schools, how…

This article examines the literacy events of two Puerto Rican kindergartners and their interactions with siblings and cousins of similar age. This work is part of a broader study that analyzes and describes literacy events in bilingual classrooms, homes, and churches of Spanish-dominant Puerto Rican beginning readers. Using a qualitative approach,…

This document contains eight articles from German newspapers that feature women who have achieved career success in very diverse economic sectors, while simultaneously highlighting the discrimination and other problems (including lower income, fewer promotions to executive positions, and smaller pensions) that many other German women continue to…