A study determined the extent to which states spend federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and state maintenance-of-effort (MOE) funds for cash assistance and non-cash services and how this compares to welfare spending in fiscal year (FY) 1995. It also identifed the extent to which states use TANF and MOE funds to provide services…

This document synthesizes the 1999 National Center on Educational Outcomes report on special education outcomes, subtitled "A Report on State Activities at the End of the Century," and reviews the changes in states' assessment policies and practices for students with disabilities over the past decade. The report finds that despite the fact that…

Since its inception in 1985, the effectiveness and quality of the Michigan School Readiness Program (MSRP), the state's early childhood education program for 4-year-olds at risk of school failure, have never been evaluated. This report details the first evaluation findings for 1995-97. The program is comprised of a child development program for…

A project was conducted to revise the list of assessment instruments that Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education (ABLE)-funded agencies are permitted to use to report learner gains. Through a mail survey, the project researched 19 standardized assessment instruments used by agencies for reporting learner…

Medicaid is the principal source of public funding for therapeutic interventions for children birth to 21 years of age and can be used to support health-related services of special education programs. An overview discusses Medicaid provisions related to state medical assistance plans; Medicaid's status as an entitlement, which means that services…

This guide provides information about the assessment and inclusion of all students in statewide and district assessment programs. In particular, it focuses on tactics for including students with disabilities in assessment to achieve a more complete picture of student learning and educational accountability. It is designed to help Wisconsin…

A series of five discussions with more than 50 people involved in the national school-to-work initiative created by the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (STWOA) resulted in the following conclusions (among others): (1) Problems with the concept include a negative attitude toward the phrase "school-to-work," the complicated nature…

This report provides an overview of projects funded under Section 353 of the Adult Education Act (1991) that support Ohio's efforts to develop individual growth and leadership in the field of adult basic and literacy education (ABLE) and program improvement. The programs profiled are grouped in the following categories: resource centers; ABLE…

This report focuses on implementation, impacts, and time limit in Florida's Family Transition Program (FTP), a welfare reform initiative. Chapter 1 describes FTP and evaluation, target population, and data. Chapter 2 describes implementation of FTP in Escambia County: staffing and organizational structure of FTP and traditional Aid to Families…

This paper describes the development work and research findings of an initiative to create a statewide literacy assessment in New York to inform teaching and learning and report on group performance trends. The Early Literacy Profile (ELP) is a classroom-based, standards-referenced performance assessment for students in the primary grades…

The Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA), administered under the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), mandates a five-year plan and assurances. Under guidelines developed by IMLS, the Alabama Public Library Service (APLS) was charged with submitting a Five-Year State Plan by August 1, 1997. This document describes the planning…

The Texas Library Connection (TLC) is a state-funded project that began in 1995. TLC is intended to provide a statewide electronic network for school libraries that provides a union database of school library holdings, access to commercial full-text databases, access to MARC cataloging records, and access to interlibrary loan functions. This paper…

The Assistive Technology Program for Oklahoma Public Schools was developed to assist Oklahoma public schools in meeting the challenges of assistive technology service delivery as mandated by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The program is a collaborative effort between the Oklahoma State Department of Education's Special…

This is the year-end evaluation for fiscal year 1998 of the Connecticut Statewide Systemic Initiative (SSI), known as Project CONNSTRUCT. The Connecticut Academy for Education in Mathematics, Science, and Technology is the fiscal agent for the SSI grant from the National Science Foundation. Data collection methods for this evaluation included…

Three guides provide sample problems like the ones students would solve on the Colorado Student Assessment Program tests. For each question, the pertinent Colorado state standard is identified. The ninth grade guide contains questions in reading, writing and mathematics; the guide to the 10th grade examination also contains questions related to…