This report is the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's first ever comprehensive analysis of education reform and results in the 50 states. For each of them, this report examines: (1) student achievement, with a focus on poor and minority students; (2) achievement trends since the early 1990s for these same students; and (3) reform efforts centering on…

Looking back upon the centuries one would suspect that in earlier ages universities of medieval France and Italy were very different from the multiplicity of organizational and institutional forms of higher education institutions in modern times, and yet one would be surprised how much these old "universitas" and modern universities have…

Part C, IDEA State Performance Plan (SPP) for Tennessee was developed in conjunction with and approved by the state's Interagency Coordinating Council. The public will be made aware of the status of each Early Intervention Service Program's performance as it relates to the Targets outlined in Tennessee's SPP. The public will also be made aware of…

A purposeful sample of four comprehensive urban high schools involved in educational restructuring initiatives was analyzed to determine how each site has implemented educational restructuring efforts and how vocational education fits into those restructuring efforts. The four sites studied were as follows: Bryan High School in Omaha, Nebraska;…

A study determined differences among the levels and types of career indecision within and between two cross-cultural groups of undergraduate students from two counseling centers. The groups were 88 University of Pittsburgh students and 79 Universidad del Pacifico, Peru, students. The Indecision Scale of the Career Decision Scale (CDS) was used to…

A study between college students from two different cultural and social backgrounds who were undecided about careers assessed levels of indecision, social support, and self-esteem. The context for the study was career indecision research showing that cultural values and specific characteristics of Hispanics and Latinos were deeply rooted in their…

A study examined 64 eighth-grade students' perceptions of opportunities available from participating in service learning and contrasted these with perceived learning opportunities available in school. Each student was enrolled in a 10-week required service learning course. Students visited service sites daily and had reflection periods two times…

A study examined the effectiveness of an integrated language arts instructional format for teaching reading compared with the effectiveness of the typical traditional reading program. The study investigated the effectiveness of approaches that are representative of both viewpoints of the reading process (i.e., word recognition and the construction…

This study used data from the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH) to explore the relationship between family functioning and adolescent behavior problems. The data covered five family types: married, two-biological parent families (TP); stepfamilies; divorced/separated female-headed families (DSF); never married female-headed…

In comparing local unemployment rates with enrollments over a 20-year period at Carl Sandburg College (CSC, Illinois), it was discovered that there is only a moderate correlation between unemployment and vocational, occupational, and GED enrollments, and no correlation at all with enrollments in baccalaureate or transfer programs. These results…

This paper discusses the use of telephone surveys as a substitute for, or addition to, the use of door-to-door surveys in assessing adult literacy ability. Part 1 addresses issues of validity in adult literacy assessment, including the concepts of construct or inferential validity and action or use validity. Part 2 is a review of related research…

In New Zealand, Maori children attend English-medium schools, schools with a bilingual unit, or kura kaupapa Maori. This study identified aspirations and concerns of Maori parents regarding their children's education, identified issues related to parents' participation in their child's education, and developed strategies to address concerns and…

Civics education in the nation's schools informs students about the structures, functions, and processes of government and about the meaningful ways in which citizens can make decisions about public issues and participate in governance. This report, part of the Nation's Report Card program and based on findings from the 1998 National Assessment of…

This set of briefs discuss state public policy and implications as they pertain to children in Georgia. The three briefs each address a single topic. The first, on benefits of child care for low-income children in Georgia, advocates implementation of the Georgia Early Learning Initiative (GELI) and details the program. The second brief, on the…

This full-color publication uses a tabloid format to present highlights from the National Assessment of Educational Progress 2002 writing assessment. It describes assessment content; presents major findings as average scale scores and as percentages of students scoring at or above achievement levels for the nation, at grades 4, 8, and 12; shows…