This report offers detailed recommendations to improve the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the current version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). It is a call to action to provide educators with the tools and resources they need to do the important job of preparing our students to live productive and successful lives. The…

Idealistic federal legislation that invokes excellence and fairness, such as the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, may actually leave many rural communities behind as rural schools seeking to meet the federal mandates collide with state budget deficits of historical proportion. Drawing on the literature, public opinion polls, and the…

The Workforce Investment Act requires local areas receiving funding to establish one-stop centers where employment service providers in a local labor market are assembled in one location. Challenges facing center staff are the expected large volume of customers resulting from relaxed program eligibility rules and limited resources for assessment…

The federal policy shift from skills training and toward work first strategies has come about, in part, from a misconception that "training does not work." A more comprehensive look at existing research reveals the documented effectiveness of skills training. A growing number of studies have shown skills training can increase earnings;…

The state of the vocational education and training (VET) system in Bosnia and Herzegovina was reviewed to identify needed changes in policy and practice. The analysis focused on the following topics: (1) existing socioeconomic conditions; (2) existing labor market policies and employment patterns, unemployment, and employability; (3) modernization…

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's Jobs Initiative is a six-city workforce initiative aimed at helping disadvantaged adults earn their way out of poverty. Between 1995 and 2002, the initiative enrolled more than 17,000 adults and placed 8,090 people in jobs. Most Jobs Initiative participants were working 18 months after enrollment in the program, and…

This paper reviews significant events and resources that have emerged since the 1992 publication of "Adult Literacy Education: Current and Future Directions. An Update" by Hanna Fingeret. It analyzes major milestones in research and practice in literacy education that have occurred in the last decade. The paper begins by looking at the…

This volume includes the first 15 papers in a 32-paper collection. After a prologue by Mkhululi David Graham Du Bois entitled "Seeking Truth in Research", the papers are: (1) "`Knowledge is Light, Knowledge is Power': African American Education in Antebellum America" (Christopher M. Span); (2) "Curriculum, Culture, and…

This book is designed for use by educators being introduced to English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) learners as well as for ESL professionals who want a resource on state-of-the-art practices. This book describes how a small program of services can fit into the standards movement and how to staff such a program. It also contains suggestions for…

These case studies and analytic essays are intended to give the reader a richer understanding of when and how top managers succeed or fail in their efforts to use performance management (PM) systems to improve the functioning of federal, state, and local government in the United States (U.S.). The question mark in the title is intended to remind…

This report documents the problem of educating students with serious emotional disturbance, reviews the legislative and administrative background, and identifies seven strategic targets in a national agenda for these children. Data for these students on academic outcomes, graduation rates, school placement, school absenteeism, dropout rates,…

In many school districts, particularly large urban districts, there has been an increase in the number of language minority students and in the linguistic and sociocultural diversity of these students. Historically, programs that served these students tended to operate and be administered separately from the mainstream program. Recent federal…

Despite progress, there is a continuing need for resource information about available supports for full inclusion of students with disabilities in educational settings. This information packet, substantially revised from 1993, is intended to provide basic information on timely subjects within inclusive education and to assist interested people in…

To be both fair and effective, student discipline law and policy must balance two separate rights of students: the constitutional right to a public education, and the right to a safe and orderly learning environment. Procedures and laws to protect students from arbitrary and wrongful discipline are necessary, as are procedures and laws to allow…

Spurred on by regulations outlined in the No Child Left Behind Education Act of 2001 (NCLB), educators and policy makers are gearing up to solve the problem of producing enough highly qualified teachers to meet the country's rapidly growing demand. According to the U.S. Department of Education, rising enrollments and increasing teacher retirements…