Describes the development and impact of a fine arts high school graduation requirement. Discusses how music, drama, and art teachers relinquished some of their independence to form a fine arts department. Includes six strategies that might be used to institute a fine arts graduation requirement in other schools. (CFR)

This legal analysis examines a federal appeals court decision which found three student theses written as graduation requirements and filed in a library did not constitute printed publications and thus bar the patent application of the college professor involved. Institutions are urged to develop comprehensive patent policies for student and…

Transcript data were analyzed to determine changes in course taking among graduates of high schools including mostly lower achieving students in California, Florida, Missouri, and Pennsylvania, which adopted high graduation requirements in the 1980s. Average credits per student increased in all academic subjects, as did the courses' difficulty…

Describes Erie Community College's computerized system to help curriculum advisors better assess each student's reading and writing competency level and track their completion of required courses. Illustrates the system's provision of information on placement tests and developmental courses taken, and whether a required composition course has been…

A recent project collected and analyzed student success indicators generated by six high schools from a large, midwestern school corporation. Schools with clear student goals and enhanced professional-development opportunities made more successful transitions to block schedules. High achievers remained successful; low-achievers struggled under…

Alternative high schools whose power emanates from variety, choice, and personal relationships are hindered from succeeding by sending schools' practices. Alternatives lack control over who attends, student diversity, time of entry, who teaches, program definition, and graduation policies. They often have inferior facilities and insufficient…

The current study builds on a previous study that examined change in student views on social work's traditional mission, career motivations, and practice preferences between entry into and graduation from master of social work programs. Results from 6,987 students at entry and 3,451 students at graduation showed that students at graduation…

The Miami Valley Tech Prep Consortium, headquartered at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, engages a wide range of students in Tech Prep pathways that span high school and college. Students are offered a blend of technical and academic coursework, as well as extensive supports enhanced by a sophisticated professional development system.…

In a well-known fable, several blind men are asked to describe an elephant. One says, ''An elephant is flat, like a pancake," another says that it's "like a big snake." Their descriptions are accurate but limited, based on whichever part of the beast each happens to be holding--the ear, the trunk, and so forth. America's "system" of higher…

50 years after the "Brown v. Board of Education" decision, a high-stakes testing movement, significantly boosted by provisions contained in No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, has emerged with the potential of both positive and negative implications. This paper argues that assessment generally is not tied to the 3 positive outcomes of…

Based on the writings and research of Mary Anne Raywid (1994) and Gary Wehlage (1989), this study sought to identify characteristics of effective alternative high schools in Iowa. This effectiveness was identified as both student retention and graduate completion. The following characteristics were not positively related to graduate completion…

Upward Bound is a federally funded program designed to prepare economically and educationally disadvantaged high school students for postsecondary education. Each year, approximately thirty-three thousand students are served by the more than four hundred Upward Bound programs. Several studies have documented the success of Upward Bound programs in…

Historically, rural schools have been geographically and politically isolated to the extent that some might say that they have been the victims of, or beneficiaries from, an unstated government policy of benign neglect. Recently, conditions and relationships have changed with the enactment of state and federal accountability legislation and legal…

The purpose of this study was to examine the variables that are associated with the percentage of students who pass Tennessee's Gateway exams in high school. Associations were examined between the Gateway exams and variables such as: socioeconomic status, ethnicity, dropout rate, graduation rate, attendance, average daily membership, per-pupil…

The vast disparities in college attendance and graduation rates between students from different class backgrounds is a growing social concern. "Economic Inequality and Higher Education" investigates the connection between income inequality and unequal access to higher education, and proposes solutions that the state and federal governments and…