The Core Experiment at Staten Island Community College is an interdisciplinary program consisting of a cluster of courses (such as freshman orientation, math, English and social science) offered to incoming students in a block. Selection of students was based on achievement test scores in English, math and physical science and on interest.…

In three major reports on higher education, some common problems emerged as recurrent themes: the absence of faculty responsibility for the curriculum as a whole, the lack of structure in baccalaureate programs, emphasis on specialization results in a tendency to downplay the humanities, thinking and problem solving skills are neglected. (MLW)

Criticizes the "Five New Basics" proposal on the basis of the Educational Testing Service's Growth Study, which found that completion of core curriculum enhances test performance only if the student's course performance is very high. Concludes that the National Commission did not comprehensively evaluate current educational conditions…

During the 2001-02 school year, the Cargill Foundation and Minnesota Humanities Commission invited elementary schools and preschools in Minneapolis and its suburbs to apply for three-year grant funding to introduce the Core Knowledge curriculum in their schools. In the first year of implementation, the different contexts of the six participating…

This report uses the phrase, "College Readiness" to refer in a general sense to the level of preparation a student needs to be ready to enroll and succeed--without remediation--in a credit-bearing course at a two-year or four-year institution, trade school, or technical school. Increasingly, however, college readiness also means "workplace"…

Students benefit from a year or more gain in student achievement when urban district and high school leaders commit to the implementation of the "High Schools That Work" ("HSTW") design. It is not enough to be a "HSTW" site--it is about taking effective actions to implement the design. Schools that do take action witness significant progress in…

This study reviews alternative admissions criteria that can be used to predict collegiate success. Data are from a 1999 review of Bachelor's Degree Attainment conducted by the U.S. Department of Education, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board's data on college students, and the Texas Education Agency's Public Education Information…

This paper discusses the relationship between education and earnings, explaining that most states still consider college preparatory courses to be electives, and the skills and content needed for further education are not typically reflected in state high school assessments. It discusses the implications of this mismatch for young people, focusing…

A comparative research project is being implemented to describe how curriculum guidelines are developed and applied in Denmark, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland, and to compare the underlying structures and strategies that influence and determine curriculum work and curriculum-making at different levels of decision making and enactment.…

In 1990, social science programs in Quebec's colleges in Canada were revised to standardize core courses and objectives across individual courses. Subsequently, the province's Commission on the Evaluation of Collegiate Teaching undertook an evaluation of the revised program to determine its administration and effectiveness, as well as the…

This book offers a comprehensive text on the assessment of students with blindness or visual impairment with a focus on approaches used at the California School for the Blind. An introductory chapter is by Frances K. Liefert and Marsha A. Silver. Eleven chapters have the following titles and authors: (1) "Introduction to Visual Impairment"…

The goal of the Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB) Making Middle Grades Work initiative is to increase the percentage of eighth-graders who perform at the proficient level in core academic subjects and who leave eighth grade ready for college-prep work in high school. This document contains a comprehensive improvement framework to aid in…

This first issue of the new "Pacific Educational Research Journal" offers articles covering diverse subjects and using diverse research methods. The new journal represents a rejuvenation of a previous publication to address educational issues specific to the Pacific region. Ethnic groups specifically addressed include Hawaiians,…

Challenges the assumption that there is a student affairs profession. Presents a view acknowledging a variety of professions providing services and programs within divisions of student affairs. Offers a model that provides graduate and continuing education in core areas for those professionals. (Author/RC)

Supporting the concept of a core syllabus, the Council of Engineering Institutions (CEI) suggests that this syllabus for A-level physics, described in the May 1980 issue of "Physics Education," occupy 65 percent to 70 percent of instructional time and that an applied physics approach with relevance to everyday life be used. (SK)