The objective of the study was to determine whether Competency-Based Testing (CBT) schools altered their curriculum differently than Non-Competency-Based Testing schools (NCBT), and, if so, what selected factors were identified as contributing to the differences among the responses secondary schools made to CBT. The data from 410 member high…

This document summarizes the first report of the Study of Academic Instruction for Disadvantaged Students, a 3-year investigation of curriculum and instruction in elementary schools serving high concentrations of poor children. (The first report constitutes volume 2 of a projected series). Recent scholarship, theory, and experimentation in the…

The symbolic function of curricular debate, as it is manifested in the minimum competency testing movement (MCT), is investigated. Curricular debate necessarily reflects the demands of the society in which it arises. The topics that are addressed spring from this milieu and the language in which issues are couched must be appropriate to it.…

This document comprises nine commissioned papers and four literature review chapters that are part of the first report of the Study of Academic Instruction for Disadvantaged Students, a 3-year investigation of curriculum and instruction in elementary schools serving high concentrations of poor children. (A summary of this report is presented in…

Advances the following premises: (1) the thinking skills of low achievers should be cultivated as much as those of high achievers; (2) low achievers can be taught higher order thinking skills; and (3) the cultivation of effective thinking skills is at least as important as mastery of basics. Presents five recommendations for change. (AF)

Through the Problem Solving and Reasoning Skills Cognitive Development Model for Severely Disadvantaged Puerto Rican College Students, the Ana G. Mendez Educational Foundation developed a model for cognitive skills development for disadvantaged, low-achieving Hispanics. The program incorporates cognitive skills into existing remedial courses in…

Five years ago Los Angeles Unified School District administrators began efforts to ensure that teachers teach students what they are expected to learn and test them accordingly. The initial stage of this projected curriculum alignment was first of all to define the essential skills to be taught in the elementary grades and provide a list of these…

Concerned about the quality of its mathematics and language programs, an elementary school district worked with a college committed to in-school research to create an instructional leadership training program for district principals and teachers. Completing onehalf of its 4-year-project, the Basic Skills Program devoted its first year to writing…

The papers in this compilation address excellence in vocational education from the perspectives of four educational levels--secondary, postsecondary, adult, and teacher education. The implications of the recent national study reports on education are examined for each level, and standards of excellence and recommendations for action are suggested.…

Over recent years there has been an increasing amount of public and political discussion of educational directions and educational accountability in relation to Australian primary and secondary schools. The study reported in this monograph attempted to address these concerns through a four-stage process: a review of literature exploring community…