The State of Texas started an educational endeavour called the Texas Common Curriculum in 1987 which was structured to ascertain and require that all graduates from Texas institutions of higher learning, who received a baccalaureate degree from a public college or university, would be required to successfully finish the state's general education…

The Texas technology education curriculum model was developed in a group effort spread over 20 years. The curriculum development team, which included representatives of the state education department, industrial arts teachers, and foundation representatives, set program standards, updated the curriculum by integrating a technological approach,…

In the midst of national education reform and in line with efforts to describe national standards for school mathematics, Texas is taking an aggressive role in reforming mathematics in the public schools. Ways that Texas schools, the Texas Education Agency, and the State Board of Education are addressing the dramatically changing needs of…

Discusses the reform and development of state instructional frameworks and curriculum guides in California, New York, and Texas. Emerging trends include abandonment of the expanding environments format in favor of a humanities emphasis in California and a citizenship education orientation in Texas encompassing the social sciences, arts, and…

This publication provides a basis for effective structuring of health instructional programs at the local level within Texas state guidelines. Fifteen topics are covered under three domains: (1) individual personal health (dental and mental health, physical fitness, safety, and drug use); (2) consumer health and health services (family and social…

This theme issue covers "High School Programming" and approaches to meeting the needs of gifted high school students in Texas. The first article is "Thematic Interdisciplinary Curricula for Secondary Gifted Students in English and Social Studies" (Joel E. McIntosh and April W. Meacham). This approach is contrasted with the…

Part of a series on contemporary school reform and special education, this report discusses how states are building capacity for standards-based reform. An introduction describes seven key areas in which states must build classroom and organizational level capacities, including: (1) teachers' knowledge, skills, and dispositions; (2) students'…

This document provides general instructional guidelines for district administrators and teachers in Texas as they attempt to meet the goal of preparing students for citizenship in a democracy. The framework includes the legal requirements for social studies and provides guidelines to school districts in planning social studies programs for grades…

This is the 2011 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA). This Yearbook contains five parts. Part I, Invited Chapters, includes: (1) NCPEA President's Message, 2011 (Gary W. Kinsey); (2) Shadows and Images II (Lloyd Duvall); and (3) Micropolitics in the School: Teacher Leaders' Use of Political Skill…

The Texas Skills Development Program (TSDP) is a key long-term strategy of the Smart Jobs initiative that will assist Texas business, industry, and labor in conveying job skill requirements to the public education and training system. Employers feel that job applicants do not have the basic reading, writing, and computation skills they need. TSDP…

During the fourth quarter of a 1-year project to improve the transition of special needs learners in Texas from school to work, the following were accomplished: (1) the curriculum model was finalized and printed; (2) draft copies of six sample units were disseminated to field-test teachers, reviewed, and revised; (3) a draft copy of the…

A project is reported which accomplished the following objectives: (1) Developed greater awareness among high school distributive education teacher-coordinators and State and area staff toward the competency based concept as applied to the Texas DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America) Association's competitive events program, (2) identified…

The National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) tracks and reports annually on 33 indicators linked to the 8 National Education Goals. The NEGP's 1997 report showed positive gains on the greatest number of indicators for North Carolina and Texas. These gains included significant gains on the 1996 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in…

Two separate research projects were undertaken in Georgia and Texas to examine the current and future needs of older adults for functional literacy and to analyze the involvement of adult basic education (ABE) programs to better serve those needs. The projects involved literature reviews; mail-out surveys; and one-on-one interviews with senior…

This study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of software packages for use in Texas vocational agriculture programs and to recommend strategies for future inservice educational needs of vocational agriculture teachers. The population surveyed comprised the nine teacher education programs in agricultural education in Texas, in which…