New York State has the fifth highest dropout rate in the United States. Between 1980 and 1984 the dropout rate ranged between 32.8 percent and 34 percent. During the 1980-81 school year alone, over half (53 percent) of black high school students dropped out of school. Several approaches have been tried to decrease numbers of dropouts. This report…

This hearing was held to receive testimony related to H.R. 3042, the Dropout Prevention and Reentry Act, which would initiate a new Federal program of grants to school districts to mount demonstration programs. The programs would focus on the following: (1) identifying high risk students and preventing them from dropping out; (2) encouraging youth…

The progress of the indicators project of the U.S. Department of Education is reported as a follow-up to a 1985 Department of Education publication, "Indicators of Education Status and Trends," which attempted to identify those items that could be considered as significant indices of the health of education in the United States. In…

School and teacher factors associated with reading achievement are compared to items from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1985 reading assessment. Significant factors which appeared in the literature included: methods and materials, time on task, difficulty level and high teacher expectation, teacher qualifications, student…

Scholars working from various perspectives are beginning to define teaching as a decision-making process. Research shows that teachers are reflective and connect knowledge to situations through observation, understanding, analysis, interpretation, and decision-making. This paper provides empirical evidence to show the relationship of…

Adult and continuing education programs use an established accountability system that includes an expectation of productivity, whereas other educational programs focus accountability on attainment of stated goals and objectives. As education addresses economic constraints by combining educational programs, these differences in accountability…

The major findings of a seminar on "Effective Schools," sponsored by the Seattle School Board and conducted in 1982, are presented in this report. In the first four sections, research on effective schools is broadly reviewed, and then a definition is offered: an effective school is one where all students master the basic skills, seek…

School board members can use board policies to set the direction for effective instructional management. Effective schools appear to have these characteristics in common: (1) strong instructional leadership by the principal, (2) a safe and orderly atmosphere, (3) high expectations of all students, (4) schoolwide emphasis on basic skills…

Equity in education first meant equal access to schools; in the early 20th Century it came to mean access to schools supported by equal resources; and more recently it has come to mean access to schools providing equally effective educational processes. Assertions that student achievement is affected more strongly by external factors than by…

This guide for middle school administrators is built upon the concept of administrators training one another using scripted workshop materials. Written to be read aloud and adapted for individual use, the guide provides information for development of effective middle school programs. This workshop material is organized into six sections.…

A number of researchers, as well as practicing teachers and administrators, have reached similar conclusions about what makes a school effective: (1) the behavior of teachers, administrators, and students; (2) the quality, as well as the quantity of effort, materials, and time; and (3) the curriculum--both what is taught and how it is taught. The…

This cross-cultural study of social class and parent involvement in schools brings together data from Boston, Massachusetts, Liverpool, England, and Portugal. Interviews conducted with 350 teachers and low income parents sought to understand the nature and extent of the contacts between schools and families. The perspective was that children grow…

The three papers presented in this compilation address a basic issue of school desegregation research: what future directions should such research take in order to provide useful knowledge for parents, educators, and policymakers? Each paper shares the viewpoint that it is narrow and insufficient to study desegregation effects in terms of…

This report reacting to three papers presented at the conference on compensatory education with special reference to Chapter 1 of the Education Consolidation and Improvement Act of 1981 focuses on a series of topics pertaining to the relationship between compensatory education and regular education. The report begins by summarizing the conclusions…

This "final review draft" report provides an overview of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) elementary and secondary school system, and focuses on broad policy questions affecting the entire system. Part I outlines the history of Indian education and describes the state of BIA education today, including enrollment trends, descriptions of…