The paper reviews the Reagan administration's efforts to convert human services financing to a block grant approach and describes the response of the United Cerebral Palsy Association (UCPA). The Budget Reconciliation Act and its impact on funding for such services as developmental disabilities, vocational rehabilitation, and Title XX Social…

The two papers in this newsletter focus on youth employment and training programs in the United States and the government response to unemployment in Australia. In the first paper, "Looking at Other Countries, No. 1: United States. Youth Employment and Training Programs during the First Two Years of the Reagan Administration" by Ralph E.…

Since the 1960s, schools have relied on federal and state programs to provide the extra resources and services needed to help certain categories of disadvantaged students catch up with their classmates. While many credit these categorical programs with expanding educational opportunities, increasing numbers question the effectiveness of this ad…

In the light of recent initiatives, new questions have arisen regarding the federal role in literacy. Although federal adult literacy efforts have been ineffective, the link between literacy and the productivity of the work force may justify a stronger national investment in literacy. Among the major federally supported literacy programs are the…

In a few years, the United States is going to have the largest number of teenagers it has ever had; at the same time, crime among teenagers is rising, and the recreational and learning activities and jobs that teenagers need for positive development are becoming scarcer in inner city and rural areas. Efforts in youth programs during the past 25…

Achieving good quality in Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) training is hampered by the lack of a common definition of quality. Five ideas have been consistent in definitions: targeting programs; long-term, in-depth training; basic education; work skills training; and supportive services and guidance. A definition must include suggestions on how…

One of a series of sixteen knowledge transformation papers, this paper combines a glimpse at historical origins of the relationship between vocational education and employment training programs with an examination of current vocational education-CETA (Comprehensive Employment and Training Act) relationships. While research and development are…

This issue features articles on basic skills enrichment for summer job programs and on the recent revisions to the Job Training Partnership Act's (JTPA's) performance standards system. "Basic Skills and Summer Enrichment: An Interview with Gordon Berlin" focuses on the summer enrichment movement in general and the Summer Training and…

Federal education policy preferences of the Reagan Administration include both procedural and substantive elements. The overarching procedural policy is devolution--the transfer of the authority and responsibility for education policy and program development from the federal to state and local levels. Federal activities intended to advance…

This quarterly contains 11 bulletins that profile marketing campaigns for the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) that have been implemented successfully in local programs throughout the United States. For each program, the description provides information on the operator, funding, results, time span, background, marketing/public relations…

The first three steps to developing a program that is both effective and efficient are participant selection, recruitment, and assignment. They require thinking about the populations to be targeted, considering how to open the door to the population and how to get the population in the door, and determining the services that are needed. The Job…

Since its beginning in 1965, the Job Corps has enrolled more than a million impoverished and undereducated 16- to 21-year-olds in an intensive program of re-education and job skills training. The Job Corps' basic education program uses the systems approach to instruction in reading, mathematics, and high school equivalency subjects; and…

Vocational education plays a significant role in the nation's economic development in terms of its capacity to make individuals more employable. It can respond to specific regional needs by producing the skilled workers for a rapidly growing industry. If, however, the industries of a region do not utilize the skills of the existing labor force, it…

The theme issue of this bulletin is a discussion of youth with emotional disturbances who are in the juvenile justice system and how to meet their needs. Articles include: (1) "Responding to the Mental Health Needs of Youth in the Juvenile Justice System" (Susan Rotenberg); (2) "Prevalence of Mental Disorders among Youth in the…

This essay reports on a roundtable of higher education leaders, association heads, government officials, and public policy experts that examined the changes in policymakers' attitudes toward federally sponsored research. Since World War II national science policy has made universities the principal locus of basic research in the United States. But…