Selected current readings in the area of school reform are presented. Seven selections in "The Front Lines" focus on current developments in educational change in the political arena. A section on "Charter Schools" contains eight readings on the development and implementation of charter schools. A section titled "School…

Principals and teachers are becoming frustrated with conventional evaluation practices typically used to determine teacher effectiveness and, thus, tenure and promotion. This Digest explains that as new performance standards are being developed, there are reconfigured assessment designs requiring an array of reflective, analytic skills. Creation…

Over the past 3 years, the Mathematics Department of Grossmont College, in California, has examined the issues of course standards, instructor grading variability, and course placement. In 1990, a study was conducted to determine if the Elementary Algebra instructors with lower pass rates had higher standards, and if their students had a higher…

This volume reports on the flow of graduates from higher education into working life in Portugal, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland. Chapters for each nation were contributed by national experts in that field. The first section of the report, on Portugal, contains two papers. The first, written in English, discusses recent changes in the…

Discussions about whether to implement associate degrees in British Columbia (Canada) date back to the mid-1970's, with the debate focusing on transfer arrangements and the viability of community college diplomas. One of the first acts of the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfer, created in 1988, was the recommendation to create an…

This document first provides an overall explanation of the Education Consolidation Improvement Act Chapter 1 and then describes Arkansas' involvement in Chapter 1 services. The report reveals that there were 76,588 Arkansas students who received Chapter 1 services in fiscal year (FY) 92, which amounted to a 7 percent increase over the previous…

The standards described in this document cover the critical aspects of business teacher education at the collegiate level. The standards are organized into two parts. Part 1, which deals with basic programs ordinarily leading to initial teacher preparation and a baccalaureate degree, outlines standards pertaining to the following aspects of…

Recommendations by the National Council on Education Standards and Testing (NCEST) are provided concerning whether national standards and a system of assessments are desirable and feasible and how national standards and a system of assessments are to be developed and implemented. The NCEST found that the absence of explicit national standards…

The minutes of eight Regional Forums (RFMs) conducted by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) to solicit public comments on recommendations by the six NEGP Resource Groups (RGPs) concerning the President's and governors' six national education goals are presented. Between April 12 and May 17, 1991, eight governors conducted RFMs attended by…

The report describes a 2-year Texas project which identified academic competencies needed by first-year college students in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and critical thinking. Presentations at conferences and educational meetings brought the competencies and their implications to the attention of over 300 Texas educators. Additional…

Chandler (Arizona) High School has reported a dramatic increase in student achievement levels since implementing a number of management, curriculum, and discipline policy changes. Among the program changes that contributed to these gains are: (1) creation of a positive school environment, with high expectations for teachers, emphasis on high…

Perspectives on college admission and problems of articulation between secondary and postsecondary institutions are addressed by a representative of the American Council on Education's Task Force on Higher Education Issues. It is suggested that there is widespread confusion about what colleges require for admission, and that many high school…

Four associate degree nursing curriculums are presented, along with competencies, program guidelines, and job opportunities identified as those appropriate for the associate degree nursing programs offered in the North Carolina community college system. Chapter I introduces North Carolina's curriculum development project and the phases in which…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently promulgated rules that make athletes' initial eligibility conditional upon the achievement of certain scores on college entrance examinations and completion of a specified high school curriculum with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. The changes were instituted to…

This volume summarizes the reports of the following commissions and study groups on secondary school reform: (1) National Commission on Excellence in Education ("A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform"); (2) Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ("High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America," by Ernest…