This study reviews recent empirical research on the effect of school vouchers on student achievement (particularly for low-income minorities attending private schools) and the effect of the threat of vouchers on low-performing public schools. The study examines the Milwaukee voucher experiment, the Cleveland voucher program, and new voucher…

This book presents a realistic appraisal of the state of efforts to link work and schooling and what can be expected of them. Chapter 1 focuses on the need for a new alliance between educators and employers. It discusses school-to-work (STW) and its variations and origins. Chapter 2 describes some new building blocks on which U.S. high school…

This brief examines problems staffing rural schools and discusses the importance of teacher education in producing effective reading teachers. Over 31 percent of public schools are in rural areas, comprising over 49 percent of public school systems. Rural districts have difficulty recruiting teachers because they generally have lower salaries,…

This report summarizes research on interventions intended to improve four key breastfeeding behaviors: early initiation of breastfeeding, feeding of colostrum to newborns, exclusive breastfeeding for the first 0-6 months, and continued breastfeeding through the second year and beyond. It clarifies what is known about improving these practices in…

This study analyzes the accreditation experience in the United States with special emphasis on the issues and decisions that surrounded the development of evaluation procedures and standards. Attention is given to the relationship between accrediting agencies and governmental agencies, the effect of accrediting requirements on the way that…

The International English Training for Adults Program is an intensive ESL (English as a Second Language) program for foreign students. Students in the program take 18 hours of classes per week, including Conversation Partners, a 3-hour course designed to give students an opportunity to practice using English with Americans in a structured,…

This action research project addressed the problem of declining parent involvement at a Midwestern, suburban elementary school. In order to document parent involvement issues at the site, parent, educator, and student surveys were administered. Surveys were analyzed for effectiveness of home-school communication, perceived barriers to and benefits…

Two pilot Internet courses for isolated older adults were developed by the University of the Third Age of the Australian Capital Territory (U3A ACT) in Canberra, Australia, and were offered to 29 older adults selected from a pool of 64 initial registrants from across Australia. Student and tutor input regarding the courses was collected from the…

Since the School-to-Work Opportunities Act was passed in 1994, there has been debate over whether sufficient numbers of employers can be recruited, in order to create a national school-to-work system with the substantial work-based learning component the legislation calls for. Recent research on the question has had mixed results. In order to…

A project developed a resource to inform and support the information and communications technology (ICT) training process. Its target audience were directors of small and medium-sized enterprises and those responsible for developing ICT use within a company or for managing staff training. The project gathered information from previous experience,…

The School Readiness Language Development Program (SRLDP) is one of several programs developed in response to a court order to racially integrate the Los Angeles Unified School District (California). The program, developed for schools with high proportions of minority students, includes oral language development opportunities for 4 year-olds, a…

In 1996, North Carolina began a 5-year evaluation of Alternative Learning Programs (ALPs). This report describes selected outcomes for students who participated in ALPs during 1995-96. These outcomes include performance on North Carolina End-of-Grade tests (elementary school) and performance on the End-of-Course(EOC) tests (high school) for…

"Citizenship" is a quality that most Americans would agree should be promoted in the schools. "Values education," as we have seen, provokes controversy and the question "Whose values are you going to teach?" An acceptable response is: "Values of citizenship, American democratic values, and the values upon which…

Training and education of infant and toddler caregivers is one important factor associated with the quality of child care they provide. In response to research showing that high-quality care supports positive development in young children, policymakers have established training and education requirements for licensed providers and launched…

It is a well-known fact that, while we have a considerable body of literature on public-school administration, information on collegiate administration is meager. This is especially true concerning the problems of the registration office. In collecting the data used for this report, the institutions holding membership in the Association of…