A statewide staff mentoring program was developed in Illinois as an option for providing a personalized, intensive approach to training early intervention personnel on a large scale. Evaluation results for the initial period of developing the process and for the first eight trainer-trainee dyads suggest this approach is individualized,…

Provides an overview of the 2+2 Tech Prep movement, including a summary of the U.S. Labor Department publication "What Work Requires of School," and Michigan's Tech Prep efforts. Describes a technical foundation or bridging program designed for individuals who desire an associate degree in a practical field but were inadequately prepared…

Virginia will pilot a program to send some community college graduates to several rural private colleges in an effort to improve educational access and help meet the anticipated growth in enrollments in the next decade. Some feel the state should expand existing public institutions instead. (MSE)

Surveyed 49 state supervisors and 36 Native American supervisors of child welfare programs in Arizona. Found that, although both groups reported similar levels of supervisory professionalization and job satisfaction, they differed in their ethnicity, their supervisory tasks, and their training needs. Tribal supervisors reported having more…

The Tennessee value-added assessment system (TVAAS) is described. TVAAS is a statistical process measuring the influence which school systems, schools, and teachers have on indicators of student learning. Initially, TVAAS will furnish information at the system level for grades three through eight in math, science, reading, language, and social…

Describes Pennsylvania's comprehensive child day care and early childhood development training system, focusing on the Early Childhood Education Linkage System (ECELS) and its immunization initiative. The initiative was established to improve the overall immunization status of all children in child day care in the state. (MDM)

The California Mentor Teacher Program is unique among statewide mentor teacher initiatives in its size, longevity, stipends for mentor teachers, and the discretion it allows local education agencies. The shared perspectives of a mentor, a local administrator, and a state administrator trace the legislative and policy history of this program. (SLD)

Describes the Iowa Communications Network, a statewide fiber optic network capable of transporting interactive, two-way audio, video, voice, and data signals. Topics include statewide cooperation among educational and state organizations; classroom design, including interactive classrooms; access to the Internet; and use by noneducational…

Offers a model for raising the level of technology expertise of K-8 classroom teachers based on a project at the University of Denver (Colorado) that sought to integrate computers with classroom curriculum, develop new inservice models for computer competency, and increase teachers' computer use. (Author/LRW)

Small rural schools incur greater expense and hardship to take advantage of staff development activities, usually held in cities or universities. The Iowa Intervention Initiative (III) overcame practical and logistic problems to hold teacher workshops for 79 small rural Iowa schools. Discusses III goals, recruitment of participants, selection and…

A project developed to increase public and professional awareness of fragile X syndrome in New Jersey resulted in increased efforts at diagnostic screening, provision of client and family support services, and prevention. The program proved to be a cost-effective method for increasing community awareness of a genetic disease on a statewide level.…

Two perspectives on assessment for teacher certification are described: the competency orientation, and the professional orientation. These perspectives are used to discuss current problems, basically validity issues, in teacher assessment: (1) a professional orientation toward assessment; (2) criterion-referenced assessments; and (3) the unit of…

Discusses the evolution of state-level assessment activities of college graduates' skills/outcomes to provide a context for a proposed national system and examines extent and types of testing in six states. Addresses the purposes of postsecondary assessment and draws conclusions as to institutional support needed to sustain a collaborative system.…

This article describes data requirements in Public Law 99-457; discusses issues confronting states as they develop data systems, such as the problems of comprehensiveness, incompatibility, and confidentiality; examines data on numbers of infants and toddlers receiving early intervention services; and explores applications of a national database on…

Describes PALL (Pennsylvania Learning Link), an interactive computer system that offers research resources, electronic mail, discussion centers, distance learning information, access to Internet mail, and specific curriculum resources geared toward classroom needs. Regional services, statewide services, and classroom services are described,…