Background: Inclusive STEM (traditionally known to stand for "Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math") high schools are emerging across the country as a mechanism for improving STEM education and getting more and diverse students into STEM majors and careers. However, there is no consensus on what these schools are or should be,…

The conceptualization and measurement of education finance equity and adequacy has engaged researchers for more than three decades. At the same time, calls for increased academic accountability and higher student achievement in K-12 public education have reached new levels at both the national and state levels. Aligning these represents an…

Performance-based funding is a system based on allocating a portion of a state's higher education budget according to specific performance measures such as course completion, credit attainment, and degree completion, instead of allocating funding based entirely on enrollment. It is a model that provides a fuller picture of how successfully…

Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) is an innovative program and strategy developed by the Washington (WA) State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) in conjunction with the state's 29 community colleges and five technical colleges. Its goal is to increase the rate at which adult basic education and…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework for providing interventions and services at increasing levels of intensity until students succeed. The framework helps teachers and schools provide instruction and interventions matched to student needs, monitor progress frequently to guide decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and apply…

To increase the rate at which adult basic skills students advance to and succeed in college-level occupational programs, the Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) developed the Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training, or I-BEST. In the I-BEST model, a basic skills instructor and an occupational instructor team…

A national survey of state-articulated student goals and outcomes led to the analysis of documents from four states for correspondence with the outcomes specified for age 3 in the conceptual model of the National Center on Educational Outcomes for Students with Disabilities (NCEO). In the survey, 36 states (including the District of Columbia)…

The booklet explains the selection and use of a system to build career development programs and presents a sample career development program produced by the system. The system provides a framework to build a program and is based on the theory of three levels of learning--perceptual, conceptual, and generalization. The model, or sample system, is…

Reporting on a rural planning and development program that proposes to develop, install, and evaluate alternative models for more effective collaboration and integration of the complex bureaucracies with responsibility for rural regions, this paper describes "Partnership for Rural Improvement" (PRI). Focusing on 11 counties in…

A model and instrument based on leadership as social control theory (LASC) to assess leadership qualities of high school principals was developed in this study. The LASC model, based on symbolic interactionist and functionalist paradigms, attempts to explain the process by which leaders reduce conflicts between individual and organizational…

The State of Washington commissioned research into various issues involving services to school dropouts under the terms of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). Data suggested that each service delivery area (SDA) had its own set of internal dynamics (economic, cultural, demographic variables) that resulted in a characteristic pattern of…

This report is divided into five major components. Part 1 contains a brief description of middle schools as they have developed throughout the U.S. since the beginning of this century. Part 2 reviews the history of middle schools as they have evolved in the Seattle School District. Emphasis is placed on the role that the district's mandatory and…

Governors and state and local education officials assumed that raising student achievement in the elementary and middle grades would solve the problems with high schools--but it hasn't. Why? Good information is the basis for successful improvement, and high school reform lacks accurate information about what students are to learn and about how…

The course outlines presented in this final report comprise a proposed Fort Steilacoom Community College curriculum to be used as a statewide model two-year associate degree curriculum for nursing home administrators. The eight courses described are introduction to nursing, home administration, financial management of nursing homes, nursing home…

This report describes options for study designs to evaluate the effect of early intervention on infants and toddlers, birth to three, with disabilities or developmental delays and their families in Washington state. Information was gathered from extensive literature reviews, a survey of local assessment efforts in Washington, a technical data…