Describes the development, beginning in 1988, of Vermont's portfolio-based writing assessment program, pointing out the inevitable tension in assessment programs between the need for measurement and a wish for professional development that leads to improved instruction. (SR)

Describes ILLINET Online, a resource sharing network for the state of Illinois. The constituency of the network, recent usage statistics relating to interlibrary loan requests, and the development of recent technological changes involving standards for networks are discussed; and future plans are outlined. (LRW)

A stakeholder approach was used in the development of a statewide educational performance monitoring system in Virginia--the Educational Performance Recognition program. Stakeholder groups included teachers, superintendents, school board members, and education group representatives. Responses of 58 stakeholders surveyed were positive. (SLD)

Defining hunger on the basis of poverty or other nonphysiological criteria is misleading. With nutritional data used by human-service agencies, suggests programs with such conception of hunger hurt the efforts at nutritional change. Uses central Mississippi as an example to propose objective nutritional definition and assessment. (TES)

Discussion of the development of educational standards and the impact on school library media programs focuses on what constitutes information skills, or information literacy. Documents for 27 states are listed that outline the information skills actually taught in the various states. (LRW)

Whether a feasible a priori factor structure can be identified for the Mississippi Teacher Assessment Instruments (MTAI) was studied through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis of ratings of 194 student teachers. Analyses support some degree of construct validity, but expected factor structures were not identified. (SLD)

Includes "Community Education (CE) Development in the States" (Clark, Zemlo); "State of the States" (Clark, Zemlo); "In Support of State-Level CE Development" (Decker, Romney); "CE in Florida" (Hanley, Robinson); ""CE in Kentucky" (Christenson, Whitus); "CE in Minnesota" (Kerns,…

Implementation of the Illinois Plan for Industrial Technology Education was assessed through interviews with 117 teachers. The assessment model (based on Stufflebeam's Context, Input, Process, Product) blended qualitative and quantitative information. Six key dimensions of change were identified, and the Transition Assessment Inventory proved…

State efforts to produce coordinated employment and training programs are complicated by lack of clear lines of command and complexity of intergovernmental policies. Leadership, acceptance of the legitimacy of multiple programs, and degree of coordination effort are essential for successful coordination. (SK)

Describes development of the U.S. service-learning movement: early roots; American Youth Foundation and National Youth Leadership Council leadership camps for youth, which combined adventure, performing arts, and social justice themes; the campaign to implement an integrated statewide youth-service model in Minnesota; creation of AmeriCorps; and…

Narrates an interview with Kenneth Ashworth, the recently retired commissioner of higher education in Texas, regarding his role in shaping the state's developmental-education programs. States that Ashworth was instrumental in starting the Texas Academic Skills Program, a statewide, basic-skills assessment program. Addresses such issues as funding…

Suggests that standards-based reform is doomed to fail unless states use their newly established, more rigorous standards to develop interventions that provide teachers with the skills and knowledge required to teach to the higher standards and students with additional opportunities to achieve the higher standards. (Author/SLD)

Idaho has improved its historically poor career and technical education programs by changing priorities and increasing state support. A large grant from the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation is being used to develop professional-technical academies and to train career and technical teachers. (JOW)

This annual directory lists supportive and rehabilitative programs for people with deafness or hearing impairments including federal programs, state vocational rehabilitation offices, regional and local programs, national professional organizations and centers, the National Association of the Deaf, and professional committee members. (DB)

Traces the development and history of reform of the Massachusetts State Department of Human Services, which departed abruptly from a tradition of institutionalizing young offenders. The Massachusetts approach demonstrates the elements of successful intervention with young offenders through intensive services, community-based programs, small case…