This discussion paper raises important issues for the future of Utah's public library services, specifically, the state's bookmobile service. Federal dollars used to support daily bookmobile operations in 22 counties will come to an end with the expiration of the "Library Services and Construction Act" in 1996. Beginning in 1997, the…

This issue of the Goldfinch focuses on communities. Ethnic groups, religious groups, schools, families, even the Internet, are used as examples of communities in Iowa. Forced communities are exemplified by migration, law, natural disasters, and sometimes education. Photographs from Iowa's past show the changing nature of communities and encourage…

During the late 1980s and the early 1990s, the "New Religious Right" increasingly exerted influence on the development and implementation of educational policies and programs in the United States, particularly at the local level. The movement will probably continue to directly and indirectly affect several important school activities in…

Of the 19 projects conducted as part of the Defense Conversion Adjustment (DCA) Demonstration administered by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Work-Based Learning, 8 tested the worker mobility approach. The projects, which shared the common goal of helping dislocated defense workers find high-quality jobs, tested one or more of the…

This paper summarizes the results of a study of the local consequences of implementing statewide minimum competency tests. For American education to be the best in the world, the use of statewide and nationwide standardized testing as a primary policy tool for stimulating reform must be discontinued. Second, school district responses to such…

This paper presents a set of general observations about state-sponsored school improvement initiatives with data from several sources. One major source is the Research for Better Schools, Inc., Philadelphia (Pennsylvania), implementation study, "Facing the Challenge: Selected Programs and Practices of the Urban Initiative's Operation School…

The St. Louis (Missouri) Regional Child Care Partnership was created in 1990 to improve child care in the St. Louis and Metro East areas, where the quality, availability, and affordability of child care are community-wide problems. The partnership was formed by the Child Day Care Association of St. Louis and the St. Louis branches of the Junior…

Given the increasingly multi-ethnic school population and the lack of democratic political traditions in many students' cultural backgrounds, new ways to educate for citizenship are essential. The paper recommends developing multidisciplinary approaches to teaching civic identity and civic writing. It describes how a New Jersey school district…

Abuse of alcohol and other drugs causes a variety of problems in a community. Accordingly, this is a manual for use by groups of citizens working to build a broadly based community alcohol and drug abuse prevention program. It includes both a systematic framework which a coalition can apply to its community, and a detailed case study of one…

This guide is intended to assist states and service delivery areas (SDAs) in addressing the new oversight responsibilities and opportunities stipulated by the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) with respect to management information system (MIS) issues in evaluating JTPA programs. The first chapter discusses the general requirements of a JTPA MIS…

Focusing on law enforcement agents and taxpayers at the local level, this two-part report examines facts about crime in the United States and reports results of a survey conducted to determine attitudes about crime and police protection. Part One presents facts and issues related to types of crime, crime statistics, the extent of crime, trends in…

In order to better understand problems encountered in meeting the particular agricultural education and training needs of students from developing countries, 30 students enrolled in the College of Agriculture at the University of Minnesota in academic year 1983-84 were interviewed to assess individual backgrounds and agricultural training to date,…

Demographic and socioeconomic changes are reshaping the fortunes of small communities and pose policy issues. Such communities find it especialy difficult to deal with rapid growth or decline, or a switch from one to the other. Small communities now enjoy greater autonomy, but at the cost of reduced federal aid. Freed from federal mandates, each…

This report examines State level strategies designed to promote local desegregation efforts as reflected in pupil reassignment plans, housing desegregation, community involvement, and changes within schools. The case histories and results of successful desegregation litigation in thirteen States are discussed. Also presented are the following task…

An established goal of the Michigan Department of Education is that annual and long-range educational planning will be improved and expanded. The purpose of this Program Review/Planning Handbook is to recommend procedures and instrumentation through which educators at the local level may plan and conduct a program review and prepare and implement…