Capital outlay for school facilities is receiving interest as focus is turned toward all facets of education, including the condition of the physical learning environment. Recent court decisions have brought about some equity in school financing, but the potential exists for future lawsuits for equity in educational facilities. There is a concern…

This speech discusses the national emerging trend toward state intervention in local educational processes as part of the academic accountability movement. It provides examples of reforms and improvements whereby state intervention furnished local school improvement. The address focuses on state intervention in Jersey City, New Jersey; predicts…

Local school districts have gradually lost policy-making discretion to state legislatures and bureaucracies. State-mandated reforms of school finance and academic standards (especially those involving curricular alignment with standardized tests) tend to diminish teacher autonomy and creativity, disrupt school climate, and ignore individual school…

The Basic Skills Assessment Act (631) is a law passed by the South Carolina General Assembly in 1978 which established the Basic Skills Assessment Program. This law requires the establishment of statewide educational objectives for reading, writing, and mathematics for each grade level, kindergarten through grade 12. The law also requires that a…

The Vermont State Board of Education adopted new standards for its public schools in August, 1984. This guide was prepared to assist schools in preparing for, and undergoing, the school approval process, a process which is voluntary for the first two years of its implementation. Section I presents and explains the procedure in the school approval…

This study analyzes the attempts of the state of California to select and promote new educational practices under the auspices of ESEA Title IVC. First, the strategies adopted in California for selecting and promoting new programs are outlined in order to raise the question of the effectiveness of these procedures. Next, the research design is…

To determine if state departments of public instruction have attempted to follow decisions by federal circuit courts of appeals in establishing guidelines or policies governing prior review regulations of student literature and student publications, a study compared state guidelines on freedom of expression in place in 1974 with those in effect in…

Part 1 of a two-part publication, this guide presents newly revised standards for public schools prescribed by the Oregon Department of Education pursuant to Oregon law. The standards presented are legal requirements intended to insure that all Oregon students have access to a sound, comprehensive curriculum and to guide districts in qualifying…

To assess the state's role as an instrument of national education policy, researchers examined four states' responses to federal programs under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. They focused, first, on how states' political and organizational contexts interacted with…

The Associates Program of the Institute for Educational Leadership is a network of educational policy-makers in over 30 states. Each state's Associate conducts several seminars each year for the benefit of the state's key policy-makers. In 1977 these Associates (then numbering 23) and the participants in their seminars responded to questionnaires…

This report documents the factors involved in the consideration of two bills by the Minnesota legislature in 1977. The first bill, designed to increase the level of state foundation aid to education, was affected by public concern over inflation and property tax rates and by the impact of enrollment decline. Lobbying efforts by organizations of…

Concerned with the impact of Title I, as national education policy on four mountain west states (Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana), this study concludes that Title I has not been internalized, integrated, or institutionalized in this region of the country or in any of the four individual states. The rejection of Title I policy rests on two basic…

THIS STUDY WAS DEVELOPED AND DIRECTED BY MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION OF CHIEF STATE SCHOOL AUDIOVISUAL OFFICERS (ACSSAVO). ITS OBJECTIVES WERE (1) TO IDENTIFY PROBLEMS IN THE USE OF EDUCATIONAL MEDIA, WHICH MIGHT BE SOLVED BY STATE EDUCATION AGENCIES, (2) TO CATEGORIZE THESE PROBLEMS BY LOCATION AND FREQUENCY, (3) TO EXCHANGE INFORMATION REGARDING…

How the reference point for the Reading Test for New York State Elementary Schools was set is described. A sampling plan was used to define de facto reading standards in grades 5 and 6. Textbooks in English-Language Arts, science, social studies, health, and safety most used in those grades were determined by mailing a questionnaire to the…

In addressing issues that are common to all educational jurisdictions in Canada, the author has designated as "national" those issues that are manifest concurrently within the provincial and local board arenas and as "federal" those issues that integrally involve relationships between the federal government and the provinces.…