Despite an act of Congress encouraging state and local governments and local educational agencies to provide high quality daily physical education programs for all K-12 students, there is no federal law mandating physical education. Each state decides if physical education should be offered and how much time should be devoted to it. This booklet…

This digest contains the following two articles on mentoring: "Mentoring in Educational Settings: Unresolved Issues and Unanswered Questions" (Olga M. Welch); and "Learning from the Field: Mentoring Projects in Field-based Settings" (Heidi Lynch). The first article describes mentoring in general and mentoring in the schools, examines some studies…

Congress, using Public Law 94-482 entitled Education Amendments of 1976, instructed the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to develop, implement, and operate the Vocational Education Data System (VEDS). As mandated by legislation, the primary purpose of VEDS is to provide a national reporting system to generate uniform data from the…

Designed to help educators and policymakers consider the effective use of currently-evolving distance learning technologies, this policy brief examines: (1) the need for distance learning; (2) the most promising combinations of technologies (two-way television, one-way television with audio return, and audiographics); (3) the cost-effectiveness of…

Educational policy research has yet to account for the movement and manifestations of federal and state policies in local school districts. In an effort to describe and explain major consequences of policy, this study examines the policy ingression process (the movement of policy in the form of statute and regulation from the district…

Policy analysis is the process by which systematically collected information is provided to decision makers. As an integral part of a specific policy setting process and a comprehensive planned change process, such analyses can provide school administrators with much needed information to guide their decisions concerning district-wide…

Recent efforts by the Ministry of Education in the state of Victoria, Australia, to combine decentralization of educational policy decision making with guidance for local schools in the development of appropriate curricula were the focus of this symposium. The six presentations made on that occasion are collected in this document. Robin Matthews's…

This plan for implementing the redesign and refocus of vocational education in West Virginia includes a mission statement and five other major sections covering career orientation, secondary vocational education, adult education, modernization, and personnel development. The career orientation program includes developmental guidance, student…

This publication builds a conceptual framework that categorizes alternative policy instruments for educational reform into actions. It defines four categories of policy instruments and hypothesizes how each will operate in addressing different policy problems in different political and organizational contexts. Subsequent research will assess…

This report describes the design of an implementation evaluation of the Massachusetts Basic Skills Improvement Policy, to be conducted during 1982-83. The Policy and Regulations were enacted in 1978-79 when school districts were required to develop basic skills improvement plans. In 1980-81 districts were required to implement their plans.…

To assess the state's role as an instrument of national education policy, researchers examined four states' responses to federal programs under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. They focused, first, on how states' political and organizational contexts interacted with…

This article discusses implementation of the California Department of Education's accountability program, its structure and function, selection of performance indicators, and recognition of schools. A survey of school officials found strong support for the concept of accountability, but weak agreement on the specifics to implement it. (Author/JAZ)

Putting shared governance to work in the College of Education at Mississippi State University has been much more difficult than many faculty members anticipated. This case study reports the experiences of faculty members working toward shared governance over the 5 years from 1996 to 2001. The shared governance initiative included a 15-member…

This monograph examines the issue of school violence and the ways to eliminate it. The goal is to return schools to their status as safe havens for children to learn, achieve, and acquire the skills they need to become successful and productive adults. Section I defines school violence and reviews data on its prevalence. Section II discusses…

The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) moved forward on the four major themes of its medium-term priorities in 2000, which were the following: (1) promoting competencies and lifelong learning; (2) facilitating new ways of learning for a changing society; (3) supporting employment and competitiveness; and (4)…