The draft version of South Carolina's state foreign language curriculum for elementary and secondary schools is presented. It begins by discussing the rationale for foreign/second language education, focusing on economic, cultural, intellectual reasons for studying languages and examining enrollment patterns and trends in the state. The second…

This document provides a process for evaluation of Florida's tech prep programs. It first summarizes the philosophy guiding tech prep activities in Florida and then it outlines the tech prep evaluation process. The evaluation process section includes the following: the goals and objectives of the process; its characteristics; the continuous…

This report presents the state, district, and local education staff development objectives in South Carolina, based on defined educational needs assessment. Suggestions include definition of the change process, discussion questions, staff development planning, empowerment, and new opportunities. Each level of the program is based on the concept of…

In 1991, the Florida legislature adopted Blueprint 2000, a comprehensive system of school improvement. Guided by the National Education Goals and a commitment to flexibility at the local level, Blueprint 2000 renews the state's resolve to improve student performance by encouraging the involvement of all stakeholders in the schooling process. This…

This report provides an overview of the challenges facing the University of Maryland System (UMS) institutions in the coming years and of strategic planning efforts that administrators and faculty must take to meet these challenges. By the year 2002, UMS will need to increase enrollment by 20 percent, increase productivity by 20 percent, and…

Guidelines to help school districts in Pennsylvania recognize potential hazards and develop a plan of community action are presented in this guidebook. The 1988 Emergency Management Services Code requires that every publicly funded state school have a disaster response plan that is exercised annually. Further, all publicly funded educational…

Since 1989, North Carolina has implemented several statewide initiatives to establish high expectations for all students. State educators have also paid increasing attention to the flexible use of time as a resource for expanding student learning. Block scheduling is a reorganization of school time that is increasingly being adopted by North…

This report is a summary of the Foreign Language Assistance Act. The Act, enacted as part of the Augustus Hawkins-Robert Stafford Elementary and Secondary Education Improvement Act of 1988 (PL100-297), provides formula grants to state education agencies for the creation of model elementary and secondary foreign language education programs in local…

This guide is intended to assist tech prep consortia/councils and high schools throughout Wisconsin in developing tech prep career maps. In the first section, a tech prep career map is defined as a counseling resource that presents a recommended sequence of specific courses and experiences designed to enable high school students to develop written…

This report examines statewide planning and budgeting for educational technology in the 15 states covered by the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), with a focus on state-level expenditures for telecommunications networks, microcomputers, software, and other technology. Capsule descriptions of each state's current activities are provided,…

The 1994 Florida State Legislature directed the Postsecondary Education Planning Commission to conduct a review of selected Associate in Science (A.S.) community college programs to determine the effect of program length on student completion rates, licensure passing rates, job placements, average earnings, and performance in further postsecondary…

South Carolina's successful comprehensive school plan to develop and maintain public support for its school reform package, the Education Improvement Act, is offered in this paper, which focuses on the necessity of public support for successful reform. Key components of the plan are described, which include timing and public interest, state…

Through Senate Bill 1202 (Chapter 1038; Hart, Statutes of 1989), the California Legislature directed the California Postsecondary Education Commission to develop a state policy statement on the use of distance learning technology in education, "to be considered and, if appropriate, adopted by the Legislature." Other issues to be addressed by the…

Adult basic education is critical to the future of the state of Mississippi. However, the state contributes only 8.5 percent of funding for adult education (the remaining 91.5 percent comes from federal sources) to serve less than 2.3 percent of the eligible population. Furthermore, Mississippi loses up to one-third of its potential high school…

Findings of a study that describes restructuring efforts undertaken by state education agencies (SEAs) are presented in this paper. Data were collected through telephone interviews with SEA officials in 24 states that were actively engaged in restructuring and analysis of SEA documents. Factors that contributed to restructuring included the place…