Discussed are evolving concepts of accountability in the United States. The majority of states have taken the position that accountability should be mandatory, leaving the specifics to the discretion of local states. Problems in accountability are also examined. (RM)

International studies may be underestimating U.S. math and science performance in relation to other countries. Such studies may be comparing U.S. students with more elite groups of students elsewhere. Lower performance may result from cultural differences and lower U.S. education expenditures. Substantive improvement depends on increased planning…

Outlines and discusses some of the major trends affecting schools and society which are likely to alter the educational aims in the 1980s. (MP)

Differential instruction approaches appropriate for teaching students with differing ethnic and racial backgrounds are a key to developing effective approaches to multicultural education. Important and frequently discussed approaches include student learning styles, dialect differences among ethnic and racial groups, and bilingual education.…

Future school curricula are likely to be less departmentalized and more integrated and holistic. This article summarizes new trends and emerging issues, such as telecommunications; computer literacy; nuclear, environmental, and AIDS education; nutrition and exercise, aging education, and futuristic study. Includes 18 notes. (MLH)

Describes the growing public demand for holding teachers accountable for student performance. Asserts that this position assumes that effectiveness can be measured, whereas the incluence teachers have on student achievement is complex and variable, and may be less than that of family and peers. Describes various State-effort accountability plans.…

The major innovations in curriculum in the 1950s and 1960s included team teaching, individualized instruction, ethnic education, bilingual education, and consumer education. Curriculum for the future might involve communications, computers, international cooperation, and values. (JN)

Given the need for school administrators to exercise fiscal restraint and pare down expenses before recommending tax increases, this article provides information concerning trends in class size, school building renovation, energy economies, teacher and administrator layoffs, and state budgets. (MLH)

The author reviews literature on teacher surplus since 1968 and projects that by 1985 there will be a teacher surplus of 800,000. He suggests there are advantages to such surplus but concludes that prospective teachers should analyze their choice carefully, and experienced teachers may face new tensions and trials. (KC)

Contemporary society is facing rapid and fundamental changes, and educators must take the lessons of the past and shape a plan for the future. This article traces curriculum trends from the late nineteenth century to the present, showing how the aims of education adapted to the changing conditions and social forces. (DCS)

Curriculum innovations and trends are examined in past, present, and future perspectives. Past curriculum innovations include team teaching, educational television, and computer assisted instruction. Present innovations include career education, ethnic education, and environmental education. Future curricular trends may include lifelong learning,…

Examines the following trends affecting the professional status of teachers: (1) practice boards; (2) teacher centers; (3) mediated entry; (4) staff development; (5) researcher-teacher collaboration; (6) merit pay; (7) master teachers; and (8) new alliances. (FMW)

Budgeting trends that will occupy the attention of school boards in the coming years include: (1) learning to do without; (2) streamlining the number of administrators; (3) repairing aging school infrastructures; (4) responding to changes in demographics; and (5) removing environmental hazards. (MLF)

Lists 10 curriculum innovations and discusses reasons why they are not used extensively today. Reviews current curricular trends in career, environmental, ethnic, bicultural/bilingual, metric/calculator, sex, nonsexist, law-related, and consumer education. Suggests communication, lifelong learning, international cooperation, and values will have…

Reviews the debate during this century over the optimal size for an individual school in terms of efficiency and student outcomes. Current consensus correlates small schools with school effectiveness, community and school identity, and individual fulfillment and participation, and large schools with school inefficiency, institutional bureaucracy,…