In the year 2000, the Alaska High School Graduation Qualifying Examination (HSGQE) was given for the first time. The HSGQE is currently scheduled to be a graduation requirement for all students graduating as of January 2002, but early results from the use of the HSGQE in the Anchorage school district raise serious questions about the use of the…

This annual report complies with the requirements of Tennessee's Public Education Governance Reform Act of 1984, which directs the State Board of Education and the Tennessee Higher Education Commission to prepare a report on: (1) the extent of duplication in elementary-secondary and postsecondary education in Tennessee; (2) the extent to which…

Postsecondary Options (POS) or Dual Enrollment (DE) legislation has been enacted in 38 states to permit high school students to enroll simultaneously in high school and college courses. This study contributed to the policy discussion by exploring the parameters of policies on dual/concurrent enrollment in New Jersey and Ocean County College (a New…

This report contains aggregate and disaggregated state-level results from administrations of North Carolina's computer skills tests (performance and multiple choice) in 2000-2001. The report also provides limited information about the performance of school districts and charter schools. Additional data are included in this report about the…

Urban Impact is a Title II Teacher Quality Enhancement Act partnership grant supporting the development of new strategies and structures to strengthen the preparation and development of beginning teachers in urban settings in Tennessee. This study evaluated the success of Urban Impact in establishing professional and social supports for the first…

As the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) has expanded, growing to 26 tests in 8 grades by 2002, new administration procedures have been needed. As these test administration procedures evolved, they were communicated through different avenues. This document consolidates the procedures to facilitate better understanding and more consistent…

The Southern Regional Initiative on Child Care (established by the Southern Institute on Children and Families) is guided by the Southern Regional Task Force on Child Care including representatives from 16 southern states and the District of Columbia. The initial charge from the Task Force was to develop a southern regional action plan to improve…

In the context of controversy over the use of high stakes testing, the Pennsylvania State Education Association (PSEA) asked for an evaluation of the performance levels and cut score of the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) mathematics and reading tests. While awaiting technical documentation from the Pennsylvania Department of…

This report is the second in a series of biennial, state-by-state 50-state report cards. As in the earlier report, state higher education systems are evaluated, compared, and graded in five categories of performance: preparation, participation, affordability, completion, and benefits. All states are given an "incomplete" in the sixth category,…

This study modeled school and district effects in the mathematics scores of the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) using hierarchical linear modeling. Three-level hierarchical models were fitted to estimate school and district effects in the DSTP mathematics scores and to examine the school and district variance with variables assessing…

This report reviews work by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (OIG), which evaluated the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), including whether children are being enrolled inappropriately in SCHIP rather than in Medicaid, and states' progress in reducing the number of uninsured children. This…

Information was collected on three issues related to the extent to which states use welfare dollars to provide work support and other services to welfare recipients and other low-income families. They were: extent of caseload decline since welfare reform was implemented and status of families who have left welfare; extent to which states spend…

This report describes initiatives and services of the Massachusetts Department of Education for academically advanced students. The first section summarizes the department's state initiatives implemented as a result of the state's Education Reform Act of 1993, such as grants to enhance district gifted and talented programs and Advanced Placement…

To ensure that educational tests do the least harm and bring the greatest good to the education of elementary and secondary school students, it is important that parents, teachers, educational administrators, and policy makers be actively involved in test construction and use. The purpose of this Statement is to provide a checklist of some…

Since fiscal year (FY) 1997, states have used funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to supplement other funds in efforts to provide more child care assistance. This report provides an overview of the rules governing the use of TANF funds for child care. The report also describes how states used TANF funds to…