The Vocational Education Amendments of 1968 require the expenditure of 25 percent of the basic grant to States to provide the disadvantaged and the handicapped with vocational education programs. This publication discusses the specific requirements of the federal law and describes classification systems for identifying the disadvantaged and…

This Quick Turn Around issue analysis summarizes information gathered by Project FORUM on the disability terms used by state education agencies (SEAs). All 50 states and 6 non-state jurisdictions returned completed surveys between February and April 2001. Of the 56 respondents, 18 SEAs report having aligned their terminology completely with the 12…

This publication is the culmination of a major effort to help establish a common terminology, descriptions, and coding structure for course information at the secondary level of education. There had previously been no standard system for collecting, maintaining, reporting, and exchanging comparable information about student course taking patterns.…

Recommendations designed to assist states in the creation of meaningful definitions of types of schools and students for use in the Council of Chief State School Officers' Education Data Improvement Project are presented. The Project's goals are to promote and facilitate the reform and refinement of the National Center for Education Statistics'…

This article presents a brief history of the transition of the federal definition for students who are gifted and talented, as well as a description of other definitions that have affected state definitions. A review of state definitions in 1990 and 1998 indicates that 29 states have modified their definition. (Contains references.) (Author/CR)

A study reviewed recent trends, issues, and changes within the states related to the use of discrepancy formulas and other approaches for determining eligibility of students with learning disabilities (LD) for special education and related services. A survey of the 50 states and the District of Columbia found they all have a statement in their…

Written for Iowa's school psychologists, the report examines current issues in mental retardation including the problem of definition, court actions affecting the schools, and trends in educational programming, evaluation, and diagnosis. Considered are reasons why mental retardation is difficult to define (such as the lack of an acceptable…

This report contributes to the comprehensive evaluation of the Common Core of Data (CCD) program by providing an analysis of CCD definitions in order to identify potential classification problems. At the time of the evaluation, the CCD program consisted of four surveys. The focus of this evaluation is on the "Public Elementary/Secondary…

This bulletin provides a basic guide for the items of information to be used in pupil accounting in the local and State school systems of the United States. Meeting at the call of the U.S. Commissioner of Education in April 1960, a policy committee for the pupil accounting project defined the project's purpose as the development of a manual of…

The issue of developing a new framework of industry programs for vocational education in the United States was examined in a study of the current status of programmatic structures nationally and among the 50 states. The following are among the topics that were explored: (1) the rationale for a new programmatic framework in the context of changing…