Fossey's perspectives on legal issues faced by personnel in school districts are too generalized and fail to account for specific problems faced by individual districts and efforts made to cope with them. Illustrates the discussion with examples from the Miami-Dade County Public School System (Florida). (SLD)

Acknowledges the exemplary hiring practices of the Miami-Dade County (Florida) School District, but reiterates that throughout the United States, many professional educators are hired who lack the skills, compassion, and creativity to be in charge of children's education. (Author/SLD)

Surveyed 31 state preschool programs to determine whether entrusting Head Start to the states would be a sound policy decision. Findings suggest that state initiatives vary widely in design, implementation, and quality. Finds reasons for serious concern regarding devolution of Head Start from federal to state control. (SLD)

Explores alternatives for reporting state dropout data and high school completion rates based on Common Core of Data information. Analyses find that the major types of nonstandard dropout reporting practices have statistically significant, but different, effects on the size of state dropout rates. (Author/SLD)

A review of the current status of state prepaid tuition plans and savings trust plans suggests that there is an accelerating trend toward participation in such programs. Also notes competition among programs and some problems (such as a negative audit in Colorado). (DB)

Presents a set of snapshots of the work of the Staff Development Leadership Councils created by the National Staff Development Council in 1998, offering lessons for others who want to do similar work in their states and provinces. The examples come from Texas, Louisiana, Illinois, Kansas, and Indiana. Information on contact people for each project…

Describes a statewide initiative in Missouri to develop and promote the Advanced Placement program, including establishing AP Teacher Development sites, and statewide encouragement and coordination of the program. Notes that this has resulted in a major turnaround in the AP program in Missouri. (SR)

Contains data on state library agencies in the 50 states and the District of Columbia, including these agencies' governance, services, collections, staff, and income and expenditures. Data are from the State Library Agency Survey, a cooperative effort of several government agencies, including the National Center for Education Statistics.…

Reviews the efforts of Michigan public libraries to create local and statewide electronic information services. Highlights include Internet access; libraries' roles in the community; networking climate; three local and regional projects; and statewide initiatives, including those of the state library. (LRW)

Analyzes two initiatives in Australian education that have attempted to influence the future directions of high school chemistry curricula: the concept of a national curriculum encompassing eight key learning areas and the reform processes of individual state governments. Presents a radically different syllabus produced by the State of Victoria as…

Reviews the extent to which states have developed comprehensive environmental education programs. Discusses environmental education curriculum requirements, guidelines/frameworks, and curriculum guides; teacher training; environmental education specialists and other staff positions within state agencies; administrative, policy-generating, and…

The "Personnel Evaluation Standards" of D. Stufflebeam (1988) were used as a framework for the historical analysis of Louisiana's effort to implement a statewide program to evaluate its 45,000 teachers for the purpose of renewable professional certification. Using the "Standards" provided insights into the evaluation process…

Investigated how well the generalized and Rasch models described item and test performance across a broad range of mixed-item-format test configurations (six tests from two state proficiency testing programs). Evaluating the impact of model assumptions on the predictions of item and test information permitted a delineation of the implications of…

Studied Kentucky's efforts to include students with disabilities in its statewide assessment, exploring the inclusion achieved, the kinds of accommodations offered, student performance, and the relationship between performance and the use of accommodations. Statewide results show that most students were included, but that some scores may not be…

Presents conclusions of an independent measurement expert that the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) was constructed according to acceptable professional standards and tests curricular material considered by the Texas Board of Education important for graduates to have mastered. Also supports the validity and reliability of the TAAS and…