During fiscal year 1994, South Dakota's vocational-technical education delivery system served 30,498 secondary students, 3,809 postsecondary students, and 8,358 adults. Of South Dakota's 178 school districts, 132 had to organize into some type of consortium arrangement to qualify for Perkins Act funds. The Perkins funds were used to provide…

During the 1993-94 program year, the 16 local Wisconsin Technical College System (WTCS) postsecondary districts delivered a total of 98,191 services to 36,071 clients through grant activities funded by the Carl D. Perkins Act. The WTCs board developed a format and process for reporting performance measures. All 16 WTCS districts exceeded the 35%…

Youth development lies at the heart of the Workforce Investment Act and the Youth Opportunity Movement. Like employment training programs for adults, employment training programs for youth should focus on acquisition of skills, gainful employment, and productive citizenship. Beyond these three characteristics, it is essential that programs for…

This Congressional report contains the testimony and documents presented for the record of the first of two hearings to gather testimony on the effects of welfare reform and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The oral and written testimony focuses on TANF legislation's outcomes and impact on work and families in…

This article explores the central role that description of experience, on the part of both teacher and students, plays in reflective practice. In particular, it highlights the power of students' description of their own learning as revealed to teachers in dialogue, a process I call "descriptive feedback." Descriptive feedback is neither…

What are the characteristics of professional development that improve teaching practice? This report addresses this question, using data from the National Evaluation of the Eisenhower Professional Development Program. The Eisenhower program is part of the federal government's efforts to support education reform based on high standards. The success…

Pre-K Now was created as a part of a major grant-making strategy of The Pew Charitable Trusts to assist national and state leaders to design and implement sound, research-based policies that support voluntary access to high-quality pre-K for all three- and four-year-old children in the United States. Pre-K Now's vision is a nation in which every…

This proceedings contains 26 summaries of conference presentations and discussions. Titles and authors are: "Is a Sexual Harassment Policy Enough To Protect Against Liability?" (Camille Barnett); "Recreating the Communities of Our Youth" (Marlyn Benson); "Creating a Language of Ethics in Rural Schooling" (Terry R. Berkeley, Linda P. Thurston);…

Among the many reasons why college and university costs are rising are factors internal to the institutions which hold down productivity. Most efforts to improve productivity usually fail because they do not introduce new energy or information from the outside. In order to improve productivity, formal, non-quantitative evaluation should include a…

Described in this report is a plan to improve public education in Houston, Texas. Specifically discussed are program components relevant to students; parents, business, and the community; and educational staff. Student components of the plan focus on achievement objectives, minimum competency testing, standards, proficiencies, extended educational…

This packet describes 10 promising practices identified in small and rural elementary schools in New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont. Descriptions of the following innovations are presented: (1) community volunteers with diverse talents and experience became enrichment "teachers" during school time for students in intermediate grades,…

This report presents a brief review of the results of seven years of work by the Field Studies Project of Research for Better Schools. The project's two major objectives were to study improvement processes in schools and to study the organization, roles, and functions of, and interrelationships among, agencies that support school improvement. The…

Descriptions are given of teacher induction programs currently operational in public schools, intermediate education units, colleges and universities, and professional organizations. Program descriptions include the address, contact person, and phone number for the organization, and a brief summary of the program's structure and objectives. (JD)

The influence of the popular fitness movement on professional preparation in physical education was examined. This study sought to answer the following questions: (1) How many fitness majors, minors, non-teaching and teaching majors are offered in physical education programs in the Central District of the American Alliance for Health, Physical…

This document contains the tables that are referred to but not included in the research monograph, "Improvement of Secondary Education Through Research: Five Longitudinal Case Studies." The monograph reports on two middle schools, one junior high school, and two senior high schools that were involved in the study project, which included…