Several years ago, a coalition of Chicago civic groups met to determine the scope of the urban dropout problem and develop strategies for dealing with it. The resulting research program rejected both attrition and survey analysis approaches in favor of direct examination of all student records for three graduating classes (1982, 1983, and 1984)…

This handbook provides guidelines for enhancing the use of time in secondary and postsecondary vocational-technical classes. It is intended to guide teachers, administrators, supervisors, inservice coordinators, and teacher educators through conducting time-use analysis. It is part of BASICS, a package of integrated materials developed to assist…

The financial health of the education system of most states is not good; those seeking to improve educational quality will have to find inexpensive methods. Areas of the American educational system in which quality standards are not being met include time spent in learning, curriculum content, appropriate use of new technology, and personnel.…

In a survey of 1,500 administrators, most of the 400 respondents agreed by an 8 to 1 margin that reforms to raise academic standards in public schools are necessary. In high schools, a decline in reading, vocabulary, and math skills is due basically to a decreased academic emphasis. Solutions include more required courses, more opportunities for…

The reactions of social studies educators to "A Nation at Risk," the report of the National Commission on Excellence in Education that examined the quality of education in the United States, are discussed. The survey was an informal one that asked educators, mainly teachers and professors, what their reactions were to the report in…

This paper presents ideas relating to curriculum organization from the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development publication, "Excellence in Our Schools: Making It Happen," which attempted to synthesize nine reports written in response to the National Commission on Excellence in Education report, "A Nation at…

This review of the literature highlights research-based ways to improve schools and classrooms. Emphasis is on student time-on-task, effective teacher behaviors, and positive teacher supervision. (JM)

This loose-leaf compendium includes three types of brief research summaries: "topical synthesis,""close-ups," and "snapshots." The single topical synthesis is entitled "School-Community Collaboration to Improve the Quality of Life for Urban Youth and Their Families" (Kathleen Cotton). Close-ups consist of…

Commissioned papers to help the National Commission on Excellence in Education make the recommendations for educational improvement for its report "A Nation at Risk" are cited in this annotated listing. The report presents recommendations in five areas: content, standards and expectations, time, teaching, and leadership and fiscal…

This set of five digests provides an overview of the issue of attaining excellence in vocational education. The first digest deals with effective schools research, characteristics of effective schools, implications of effective schools research for high school vocational education, and strategies for improving school effectiveness. Covered in the…