The Kentucky Education Reform Act of 1990 mandates radical changes in curriculum, finances, and governance for all Kentucky schools and requires that all schools implement school-based decision making (SBDM). SBDM involves a cooperative problem solving approach to operational decisions. New York's Johnson City school district developed an…

This paper describes conditions and processes involved in implementing school-based decision making (SBDM), examining an outcomes-driven developmental model (ODDM) and describing the training components within Springfield, Missouri's and Kentucky's strategic plans. The Springfield Board of Education approved a plan to guide a schoolwide community…

The Sudbury Valley School was founded in 1968 by a group of Massachusetts parents who felt that a child is a person, worthy of full respect as a human being. It was intended that a nurturing environment be created in which the children themselves chose what they wished to do and scheduled their time. Democracy was a cornerstone of the school's…

This digest describes the process of designing quality individualized education program (IEP) transition plans for secondary students with disabilities as required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) as amended in 1997. It stresses the importance of taking an early, long-range approach, preferably beginning at age 14 or…

This book presents interviews with people of color from four groups (African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinos), many of whom are teachers or education professionals, who express their attitudes toward teaching and understanding of why minority students are not choosing to become teachers. The book addresses the problem of…

Efforts of one school system in Alabama to respond to students' self-reports of participation in at-risk behaviors are examined. The Seniors Offering Support (SOS) program was designed to deal with these problems. The program aimed towards fostering student resiliency in an attempt to create healthy decision making. The program attempted to…

This report discusses outcomes of a Canadian initiative to assist in the deinstitutionalization of persons with intellectual disabilities in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The projects were managed through a partnership in each province including representatives from Human Resources Development…

This study examines the course shopping behaviors of approximately 5,000 community college students enrolled across the nine campuses of the Los Angeles Community College District in spring 2001. The sample students are representative of the district. For the purpose of this analysis, the authors define course shopping as: (1) cyclic shopping, the…

Developing financial fitness requires developing a knowledge base and then applying it. This teacher guide and student workouts package contains 15 lessons from students at grades 3-5, divided into 4 theme areas of earning and income, saving, spending and borrowing, and managing money. The development of knowledge for use in the everyday life of…

Takeovers, charter schools, and P-16 systems are three issues in educational reform that have recently received a great deal of attention. For each of these issues, this report examines state activity in 2001 and early 2002, explores recent research findings, and offers key questions for state policymakers to consider. Until recently, state laws…

This report focuses on use of large-scale economy-wide models in Australia for occupational forecasting and their use in the vocational education and training (VET) sector for making decisions about training profiles across occupational areas. Section 2 reviews objectives of VET policy as defined in the legislation and Australian National Training…

A study assessed the teaching/learning environment of one professional development school in a variety of ways that included a combination of quantitative and qualitative measures. Results were analyzed using the eight scales of the "School Level Environment Questionnaire" (SLEQ) as categories: Student Support, Affiliation, Professional…

This guide offers information on undertaking a comprehensive, well-organized, programmatic approach to college planning. "The College Search: Defining the Problem" provides an overview of college-planning problems and offers solutions. A comprehensive, systematic 6-year timeline is included. "Planning for Gifted Students: What Makes Them…

Mission statements can provide a useful vehicle to communicate the purposes, goals, and objectives for functional units within organizations. This paper studied the extent to which institutional research offices utilize mission statements to communicate office functions. These functions were identified through content analysis, using nine specific…

This document discusses community college governance. Because the challenges to governance are many, a solution to one problem could aggravate another and create new (and sometimes greater) difficulties for the college and those it serves. It would be better to have a full grasp of the problems before considering how they might all be solved.…