When the Maryland School Performance Assessment Program (MSPAP) was unveiled in 1991, schools faced a public supportive of change but unhappy with the tests' implications--measurement of school, not student performance. Teachers helped design a nationally normed test to complement MSPAP. The process involved listening, communication, and…

Although California schools are experiencing cutbacks, the cause may be declining enrollment rather than Proposition 13. A less debatable result of Proposition 13 is greater state control of education's purse strings. (Author/JM)

Outlines a comprehensive curriculum development model intended to define the school board's responsibilities in curriculum development and to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs and interests of all the publics to which the board is accountable. (JG)

Summarizes the research on school effectiveness and identifies state policy implications followed by a discussion of current state education policies and their relationship to school effectiveness research. (MLF)

States should take an active and direct role in education reform: supporting school reform efforts, providing technical assistance, defining and controlling educational content, and assessing the outcomes of education. (MLF)

In Florida, a legislatively mandated funding program supports statewide staff development efforts, which are primarily school-based. (Author)

Explains the structure of Tennessee's Career Ladder Program for teachers, with the primary focus on evaluation procedures used at the state level for identifying teachers in the top two to five career levels. Covers evaluation criteria, evaluation data sources, use of peer evaluators, and evaluation processes. (PGD)

Discusses the impact of federal and state government on the autonomy of local school districts, particularly in the area of curriculum reform. Examines the effect of recent state legislation on New Jersey school districts, describing two local school district programs that illustrate the influence of state and federal government. (JG)

Foremost policy watcher at the Center for the Study of Teaching, Linda Darling-Hammond analyzes the effects of state and district policies on teachers in classrooms, favors full partnership for teachers in decision-making, and points out the importance of the knowledge base for the professionalization of teaching. (TE)

No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) encourages New Jersey and other states to use their expanded roles in narrow ways. NCLB identifies state takeovers as one potential sanction for schools that fail to reach their adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets for five consecutive years.

The History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools, recently adopted by the California State Board of Education, focuses on three main goals: knowledge and cultural understanding, democratic understanding and civic values, and skills attainment and social participation. (TE)

Efforts to professionalize teaching in recent years have contrasted sharply with regulatory initiatives that deprofessionalize the occupation and the act of teaching. Choices made now between better regulations and better teachers will determine the shape of education in years to come. (TE)