The Department of Education has begun a project to redesign the information systems used to deliver student financial aid funds to students, postsecondary institutions, lenders, and state guarantee agencies. The implications of this strategy are considered. (MLW)

The author explains the importance to the field and to exceptional children of the Code of Ethics, Standards for Professional Practice, and Standards for the preparation of Special Education Personnel, recently adopted by The Council for Exception Children. (MC)

Reports on a study that found that public relations practitioners respond in different ways to different moral-ethical dilemmas and that they tend to think they are accountable in some situations to an authority higher than management. Concludes that subjectivism is the prevailing moral-ethical theory of practitioners. (FL)

Presents two articles which provide elementary school counselors with ideas to enhance their role and profession while coping with shrinking program resources or staffing patterns. Describes a comprehensive model incorporating context, input, process, and product aspects of accountability which can be used to fight reduction in force efforts. (JAC)

Argues that the obligatory nature of functional literacy does not deprive the individual freedom of thought and opinion, and that voluntarism in basic adult education in the United States has greatly contributed to putting the nation at risk and to keeping it a nation at risk. (HOD)

Detention rooms are more effective when students are accountable for their behavior, rules and consequences are clear and publicized, and teachers are involved in the disciplinary process. (DCS)

Results suggest that women tended to find excuses (denial of responsibility) helpful in reducing embarrassment while men tended to find justifications (acceptance of responsibility) more helpful. Discusses the findings in terms of sex roles. (PD)

Achieving flexibility without losing student accountability is a challenge that faces every school. With a fluid block schedule, as described here, accountability is maintained without inhibiting flexibility. An additional advantage is that three levels of schedule decision making take some of the pressure off the principal. (Editor)

Education is a complex issue and no sweeping generalizations about it can be made. It follows, therefore, that there can be no simple answer to the student test score decline question. (Editor) Aspect of National Assessment (NAEP) dealt with in this document: Results (Utilization).

A study of 730 recent graduates of the University of Michigan School of Social Work was conducted with both the quality and quantity of their practice assessed. Major findings were that 91 percent of the respondents were employed as social workers but one-third were primarily using a method in which they had not specialized. (Author/LBH)

The baccalaureate nursing program at Herbert H. Lehman College, Bronx, New York prepares students for primary care nursing by structuring the clinical experience to include the essential, interdependent components of: assessment, accountability, leadership, and management. Graduates are expected to be proficient in the primary care role in any…

One of the most important federal statutory schemes for opening the university "black box" and for increasing access to other public and quasi-public entities is Title 42 of the United States Code, section 1983, the codified successor of the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Its implications for accountability are discussed. (LBH)

The American Indian Policy Review Commission's Health Task Force identified the following deficiencies in Indian health care: inadequate policy; inadequate appropriations; inadequate delivery systems; lack of responsiveness on the part of state and local agencies toward Indians; lack of oversight and accountability at all levels of Indian Health…

School administrators and legal experts discuss why school board decisions are increasingly vulnerable to judicial, legislative, and public review. Steps are outlined to avoid legal hassles. (Author/MLF)

This report describes how progress monitoring--a set of techniques for assessing student performance on a regular and frequent basis--can be an essential and integral part of an inclusive standards-based assessment and accountability system. In order to meet the higher expectations of current standards-based systems, educators need information…