In Florida, a legislatively mandated funding program supports statewide staff development efforts, which are primarily school-based. (Author)

Explains the structure of Tennessee's Career Ladder Program for teachers, with the primary focus on evaluation procedures used at the state level for identifying teachers in the top two to five career levels. Covers evaluation criteria, evaluation data sources, use of peer evaluators, and evaluation processes. (PGD)

Research has shown that preschool education is a sound investment--academically, socially, and economically. Offers some options for integrating the existing patchwork of U.S. public and private programs into a uniform system that provides a high-quality early education to all young children. (Contains 13 references.) (MLF)

The data from this study indicate that the national policy of exploiting the young child's capacity to learn exerted a powerful influence on state educational policy. (Author)

Pennsylvania's Content Area Reading Program uses a network of 50 trained instructors to help teachers improve students' content area reading skills. This article covers program content, instructor recruitment and training, variations in program presentation, factors underlying program success, and steps in planning inservice programs in content…

Describes how North Carolina educators cooperated to build a system of teacher-performance appraisal. To build the program, educators derived basic teaching functions from literature and observed teachers to gather performance data. Training is now provided to districts, and information about effective teaching is disseminated throughout the…

Briefly describes a Nebraska program in which materials were developed through the cooperation of university professors, teachers, state department of education participants, Native Americans, and others. (JM)

Addresses the problem of how schools should cut their curricula to make room for state-mandated additions, such as AIDS education. Recommends state guidelines for allocating time and assessing the effect that teaching new curricular content will have on an existing curriculum. (TE)