Parents can play a key role in attaining the United States' National Education Goals, a main component of which is that all children will be ready to learn when they enter school. This guide for parents provides basic information on factors related to school success and a series of activities that parents can do with their children, ages 5 through…

The National Center for Restructuring Education, Schools, and Teaching is working with the New York State Education Department to develop an assessment system that addresses both instructional and accountability concerns. The new system is intended to move the state to a system of performance assessments used in the service of ongoing teaching and…

The report provides an overview of the academic preparation of a sample of prospective candidates for the ministry. Data were drawn from the records of approximately 12,000 students taking the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) from 1981-1988. It was found that during this period, 1,000-1,500 applicants to Masters of Divinity programs took the GRE…

This "Profile" offers a snapshot of state assessment systems by describing some of their fundamental characteristics. Its focus is on what individual states are doing in terms of developing their own standards and assessments and how they report these results. Two pages of information are presented for each state (but not for the…

In 1970 the City University of New York (CUNY) initiated an open admissions policy that aimed to create an unusually high level of educational opportunity, especially for low-income minority youth. Opponents asserted that this policy so degraded academic standards that CUNY's diplomas lost their value. Using a data set with extensive information…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) monitors the South's education reforms through "Benchmarks" reports, tracking progress toward 12 goals for elementary, secondary, and higher education that were endorsed by the SREB in 1988. The board collects state-by-state data every 2 years and compares how states are doing on over 60…

This instructional booklet presents an overview of the Developmental Education Student Retention Tracking System (DESRTS), developed by the South Carolina State Board for Technical and Comprehensive Education to make information available on the retention and graduation of developmental students in the state's technical colleges. Following an…

A total of 283 students at Fassett Middle School in Oregon, Ohio, a suburban, middle-class city were surveyed about their attitudes toward foreign language study in high school. The participants were 151 male and 132 female students in grade 6 (87), grade 7 (104), and grade 8 (92). The objective was to determine whether or not the middle school…

Forty-three essays were delivered at a conference on multicultural education held in 1991 and explore the ideas, beliefs, research findings, philosophical roots, and direction of multicultural education, along with its policy, practice, and critical assessment. Selected essays and their authors include: "History and Philosophy of the National…

This publication provides individual descriptions of grants allocated by the state of Illinois for aid to higher education for fiscal year 1997 under the provisions of the State Higher Education Cooperation Act. The Act provides funds for interinstitutional grants, minority educational achievement grants, minority articulation program grants,…

This text on the assessment of students with disabilities focuses on accuracy in assessment and testing and the need for functional and meaningful assessment practices. The 14 chapters are grouped into 4 major parts. The first part, "An Introduction to Assessment," describes a comprehensive evaluation and discusses the mandatory…

The major purpose of the Higher Education Survey (25 statements rated 1=very well to 5=very poor) was to determine if there is agreement between higher educators ratings, those of employers, and graduates themselves in terms of Saginaw (Michigan) Schools'"graduate standards" which are: (1) academic achiever; (2) self-directed learner;…

This study compared the actual resource costs and outcomes of instruction in inclusive classrooms with the costs and outcomes of special class/integrated instruction in a California school district where both types of programs were operating. Four students included in general elementary education classrooms were matched with four pupils from…

The resources available to parents and the actions parents can take to further their children's education is reviewed through a collection of essays that focus on the social and economic resources of the family and by looking into the home, community, and school to see how families are involved in educational activities. The importance of parent…

St. Augustine College (SAC), in North Carolina, has undertaken four studies to gather data on factors related to student persistence, transfer, and withdrawal from the college. In the first study, graduating students from June 1990 to December 1992 were surveyed to determine influences on their decisions to transfer to a university. Three major…