This digest explains how to inform high school students and their parents about the human genome project (HGP) and how the information from this milestone finding will affect future biological and medical research and challenge science educators. The sections include: (1) "The Emerging Legacy of the HGP"; (2) "Transforming How…

This Digest describes several programs designed to foster successful school reform, and examines the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) Program, recently approved by Congress. Whole-school (or comprehensive) reform includes a cross-disciplinary set of nationwide and local programs, dedicated to the intellectual and personal nurturing…

Competition exists when vendors of a service are available to meet the demands of customers. In the education sector, parents and children are consumers, and schools and districts are the suppliers. Theoretically, more competition should translate into higher quality schooling and enhanced educational outcomes. This digest reviews the literature…

The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) promotes excellence and equity in education by conducting research and demonstration projects, collecting statistics, disseminating information, and providing technical assistance to those working to improve education. OERI supports two major research and…

As the United States debates what it expects of college graduates and how to measure the achievement of these expectations, the goals of students frequently are overlooked. Goals are what individuals hope to achieve and accomplish. Currently most colleges collect information about the broad goals students hold for attending college as they enter,…

This ERIC Digest reports on the findings of a 1984 Wingspread Conference on Strengthening High School World Studies Courses. The digest considers key challenges that the course poses for educators, the goals of the conference, long-term efforts that have been initiated, activities recommended by conference participants that would provide practical…

This ERIC digest focuses on school restructuring as the central issue in the school reform movement by answering five questions: (1) What is "restructuring?" (2) What characteristics of the current educational system are the objects of reform? (3) How can restructuring attend to new skills students will need? (4) How can individual…

Controlled school choice attempts to provide choice while maintaining ethnic and racial integration. The following elements are found in most controlled-choice plans: (1) any program that is successful in one zone must be replicated in all the other zones; (2) parent information centers are available to help parents make educated choices; (3)…

This "ERIC Digest" considers the U.S. charter-school movement, which has produced about 800 schools in half the states and enrolls over 100,000 students. Charter schools reflect founders' varied philosophies and commit to achieve certain educational outcomes within a certain period, in exchange for waiving many restrictive regulations.…

Questions that the general public may have about the six national educational goals formulated by President Bush and the U.S. state governors in 1990 and the administration's plan for educational reform are addressed in this digest. Ten questions and brief answers are presented in the following areas: defining the goals; the attainability,…

This digest describes a program used by two New Jersey educators to help teachers improve instruction through a deeper understanding of state standards and test specifications. Understanding how standards-based tests are constructed is the first step in being able to use them to guide and improve instruction. This digest recommends, as the route…

This digest in Spanish explains why public-school governance is receiving increasing scrutiny. It identifies who is held accountable for results in the current governance system and describes recent proposals for transforming governance structures. Since many reforms of the past decade bypassed the school board and district office, reformers are…

A good deal of evidence now suggests that a strong sense of community in schools has benefits for both staff members and students, while providing a necessary foundation for school improvement. This digest in Spanish provides an overview of the literature on schools as communities. The digest identifies the elements of community schools, the…

This digest explains why public-school governance is receiving increasing scrutiny. It identifies who is held accountable for results in the current governance system and describes recent proposals for transforming governance structures. Since many reforms of the past decade bypassed the school board and district office, reformers are now…

At their summit meeting in February, 1990, the President of the United States and the National Governors' Association established the national education goal that "all children will start school ready to learn" by the year 2000. The process of reaching this goal will require a twofold strategy. First, families will need help in their…