This document describes educational outcomes assessment at Austin Community College (ACC) in Texas, identifying three levels: (1) classroom; (2) course or program; and (3) institutional. ACC's assessment process provides information to enhance the quality of teaching and learning as well as the quality of services offered in support of these…

The South African educational system has experienced many significant changes in the past 5 years which are intended to facilitate paradigm shifts in terms of ownership of schools, equity, wider access, more mobility, and modernization. New legislation and policy frameworks propose numerous strategic recommendations. It was against this backdrop…

The New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) aims to provide access to higher education for disadvantaged students in order to increase diversity in New Jersey's institutions of higher education. This report is issued in accordance with the EOF Board of Directors' responsibility to inform the Commission on Higher Education, the Governor, and…

This article reports the results of a survey that "Instructor" magazine asked their readers to complete. Teachers responded on such topics as: (1) quality of their instruction; (2) diversity of curriculum; (3) their schools' problems; (4) opinion of their principals, superintendents, and school board members; (5) future of the teaching profession;…

Describes performance funding as a relatively new approach that links tax support to institutional results from performance indicators chosen by the state. Under result-based funding, states consider efficiency and effectiveness as a basis for funding two- and four-year schools. Budgeting shifts from what states should do for their colleges toward…

Development of school-effectiveness-research models owes little to academic progress or scholarly critique. Effectiveness is measured in terms of fashionable production expectations. In the postwar years, schools produced economic growth. In the 1970s, they produced equality and good citizens. In the 1980s, schools produced good employees. Is…

Research shows that in small schools students have better attendance and higher test scores, participate in more activities, are less violent, and feel more connected to their schools; teachers form closer bonds with students and are more innovative; and parents are more involved. Three models are examined: small schools, schools within a school,…

Reports a study in which Israeli researchers examined school cultural differences between effective and average secondary schools. The 20 participating schools taught mainly disadvantaged students. Teachers completed the Perceived School Culture Inventory. Results indicated that schools varied in their cultural dimensions, and the variation…

Describes efforts at St. James' C of E Primary school (Ashton-u-Lyne) that resulted in a school transformation from being under the threat of closure because of low enrollment numbers to being an oversubscribed school that is credited with promoting the highest standards of personal development and racial harmony. How this period of change was…

The No Child Left Behind Act reflects a decision by Congress that federal money not be squandered searching for local solutions, but that scientifically based research be utilized to ensure that every student meets academic standards. The school improvement process requires that local stakeholders cooperatively plan an improvement process, and…

Research findings in England suggest that increased competition among schools, if combined with performance management, may enhance schools' efficiency. But, to prevent greater inequality in access to good quality state education, care must be taken with the regulations governing school admissions and the incentives for schools to admit and retain…

Discusses recent curricular and instructional reforms, collectively called basic skills restructuring, that have developed in urban schools. Discusses these reforms as a response to various crisis tendencies in the operation of schools by dominant power groups. Discusses the causes and effects of top-down curricular reform initiatives. (JS)

School dropout rates for two consecutive years (1985-86 and 1986-87) for all California regular public high schools are examined in conjunction with the percentage of students covered by Aid to Families with Dependent Children, total enrollment, achievement, and academic course enrollments. Higher achievement was associated with lower dropout…

Issues that emerged in the evaluation of the Queensland (Australia) Review of School-Based Assessment are discussed. The effects of implementation on secondary school teachers are addressed. The legal requirements, under Section 37 of the Queensland Education Act, of the curriculum innovation have been implemented and met by teachers. (TJH)

Budgeting trends that will occupy the attention of school boards in the coming years include: (1) learning to do without; (2) streamlining the number of administrators; (3) repairing aging school infrastructures; (4) responding to changes in demographics; and (5) removing environmental hazards. (MLF)