This first volume of a sourcebook presents a framework for identifying best practices of integrating career preparation into the community college. An introduction identifies seven domains of competency critical for postsecondary students: foundation academic competencies, education for citizenship, job specific/technical skills, career…

This report concerns integrating academic and occupational instruction at the community college level. Such integration would be conducive to preparing a competitive workforce, providing a broader educational foundation, shifting from teaching to learning, and building bridges between disciplines in the community college. There are several…

In 1995, the Albuquerque (New Mexico) school district devised a plan to merge special education, cross-cultural education, Indian education, and Title I with the general education program, designated the Unified Education System (UES). Considering the abrupt implementation of UES in the first year and subsequent confusion regarding staff positions…

Comprehensive school reform calls for a "whole-school" and coordinated approach to improve schools. The strategy differs from piecemeal and fragmented efforts that also in the past have seemed only to lead to short-lived changes. To stimulate whole-school reform across the country, Congress appropriated funds in FY1998 for the U.S.…

The process of change at the academic Sepulveda (California) Veterans' Administration hospital during implementation of a new ambulatory primary care program was examined through individual or focus group interviews with 63 managers, house officers, and patients. Major problems included administrative integration of in- and outpatient services;…

This article is about one school district's effort to reform its elementary science curriculum through a program of professional development called Science, Parents, Activities and Literature (Science PALs). The differential exposure of the district's K-6 teachers to Science PALs and differences in how well teachers implemented Science PALs-type…

This is the first report on the evaluation of the Inquiry Based Science and Technology Education Program (IN-STEP), an innovative and ambitious science education initiative for lower secondary schools being undertaken by a public-private partnership in Thailand funded by MSD-Thailand, an affiliate of Merck & Co. IN-STEP is a public-private…

These guidelines are for individuals and school divisions contemplating or already integrating academic and vocational education. Section 1 discusses two goals for integration. Section 2 provides a justification for integration and discusses the contradiction in the skills obtained in school and those needed in the workplace. Section 3 defines the…

Central Missouri State University instituted a Continuous Process Improvement (CPI) Model based on assessment-as-learning for postsecondary curricular and pedagogical reform. Overall the effort intended to create a paradigm shift from the course credit model to the assessment-as-learning model. The process used the Assessment-as-Learning model…

A brief and flexible overview is presented of the steps that should be taken to revise social studies instruction. The booklet lists 10 steps in the revision process. Each step has a brief commentary followed by questions that a local curriculum planning group may want to consider. Some resources to help answer these questions are included. The…

In this article, the author presents the words of participants in a professional development academy who discussed challenges associated with implementing mathematics education reforms in their classrooms and schools. The goal is to provide insight into the complexity of issues that hamper the transformation of the mathematics education culture,…

The status and effects of state-initiated educational reform were studied for local school districts in seven areas of educational improvement (EI): (1) state-mandated testing of students; (2) state curricular outcomes; (3) summer remediation; (4) state evaluation of local districts; (5) more stringent teacher requirements; (6) mentoring; and (7)…

Beginning with a capsule history of United States education reform efforts and an examination of the American "myth" of the apolitical nature of education, this paper explores the political bases of education policy. Reviewing the literature on educational politics with a particular concern for recent curriculum reform efforts at the state level,…

The 5-year Experimental Schools (ES) project in the South Umpqua, Oregon, school district was observed from a "participant observer" point of view. The South Umpqua district served four rural communities in which residents were adaptable to economic change, accepting of newcomers, and very involved in their communities as decision makers…

In June of 1998, Proposition 227 was passed by 61 percent of the California electorate. The initiative was intended to significantly alter the ways in which the state's English learners (ELs) are taught. Proposition 227 requires that ELs be taught "overwhelmingly in English" through sheltered/structured English immersion (SEI) programs…