The purpose of this qualitative document analysis research study was to explore how public high schools in California create local unexcused absence and truancy policies in similar and different ways. The study used Lipsky's "street-level bureaucracy" and the American Psychological Association Zero Tolerance Task Force's definition of…

The most recent data available from the National Center for Educational Statistics (2004) estimate that 60% of community college freshmen and 25% of freshmen at 4-year public institutions nationwide complete at least one remedial course. Nationally, fewer than 40% of students who are referred to developmental education actually enroll in…

"Policy and Performance in American Higher Education" presents a new approach to understanding how public policy influences institutional performance, with practical insight for those charged with crafting and implementing higher education policy. Public institutions of higher learning are called upon by state governments to provide…

As part of a larger study, 84 major state level early childhood policymakers in Michigan, California and New York were surveyed to identify differences in policymaking styles among state agencies and interest groups. Participants included (1) agency policymakers, such as early childhood specialists in the departments of education, social services,…

State-sponsored teacher networks in Vermont and California are compared, using interviews with teachers, network staff, and policymakers. It is concluded that state-sponsored networks can improve teachers' knowledge and motivation while empowering them. Recommendations are made for loosely coupled and capacity-building strategies to support…

The nine essays in this monograph represent an expanded outgrowth of "The American Indian in Urban Society" (1971) and an attempt at improvement. The essays are titled as follows: (1) "Federal Policy and the Urban Indian" (Federal policy affecting the urbanization of Indian populations); (2) "Urbanization in a Reservation…

A research project that developed methods for describing, organizing, analyzing, and predicting state education policy activity had as its major focus the way that values affect that policy. Data were drawn from six states: Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Arizona, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They were chosen to represent ranges of political…

This volume includes the following conference papers: "The Status and Direction of Workers' Compensation" (James R. Chelius); "The Minnesota Experience with Workers' Compensation Reform" (Steve Keefe); "The 1982 Changes in California" (Alan Tebb); "Two Rounds of Workers' Compensation Reform in Michigan" (H.…

A pilot project profiled and compared the influence of the major environments of supply and demand, education, practice location and incentives, licensure and regulation, and planning and analysis on the health workforce in and among 10 states (California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, and…

This report highlights recent legislation in Minnesota and California concerning charter schools, schools designed and run by teachers under contract with a public sponsor, and provides a brief overview of the issues involved in the establishment of charter schools as a strategy for improving public schools. In Minnesota, charter school…

This research report ordered by the California Senate analyzes problems and possible solutions to postsecondary education finance in that state. A first section explores the background to the issues and concludes that higher education should be a top priority of the state government now and in the future. A second section examines the problem of…

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…

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…

The outcomes and implementation of career academy programs in California were examined in a study of one school district's efforts to implement a uniform career academy model in 1990-1996. A cohort of approximately 10,000 students who were sophomores in the district's comprehensive high schools between 1990 and 1993 were followed through high…

The effectiveness of state enterprise zone programs was examined by using a hypothetical-firm model called the Tax and Incentives Model-Enterprise Zones (TAIM-ez) model to analyze the value of enterprise zone incentives to businesses across the United States and especially in the 13 states that had substantial enterprise zone programs by 1990. The…