This report examines the effects of early efforts to link the Elementary Secondary Education Act's (ESEA's) Chapter 1 (now Title I) programs to state and district education reforms, which are standards-based. The report focuses on how Chapter 1 standards and accountability requirements connect with new state-level standards, curricula, and…

This manual contains information about the selection and implementation of a meal counting and claiming system for the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) and the School Breakfast Program (BSP). Federal reimbursement is provided for each meal that meets program requirements and is served to an eligible student. Part 1 explains the six elements of…

This progress report reviews the first year of Texas' public-school accountability system. The report meets the state legislature's requirement to: (1) provide reliable measurement of student performance; (2) relate student academic outcomes to state standards; (3) recommend action in cases where results deviated from expected performance; and (4)…

Program reviews provide department chairs and faculty with vital information about the need for their program, changes that can improve the program's viability, and needs for resource allocation. In addition, well-designed reviews will determine program effectiveness and lead to improvements in program quality. In recent years, the role of program…

The 1993 Mississippi Report Card was the result of legislative and accountability processes. The state's Education Reform Act of 1982 created a mandate to establish a performance-based school-accreditation system. This paper presents findings of a study that disaggregated and analyzed the total per-pupil expenditure indicators in the 1993…

This report argues that the academic performance of American students has not declined, but that schools and students are confronting new and higher demands. The fundamental challenge facing American primary and secondary education is how to increase productivity--how to make better use of its resources. In this document, the Consortium on…

The United States General Accounting Office (GAO) reviewed the Department of Education's Office of Inspector General's (OIG) audit of the annual financial statements for the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) for the fiscal year ended September 30, 1994. GAO reviewed OIG's audit rather than conduct its own to avoid duplication and to…

The traditional methods of assessing the academic programs in the liberal arts are inappropriate for evaluating vocational and technical programs. In traditional academic disciplines, assessment of instruction is conducted in two fashions: student evaluation at the end of a course and institutional assessment of its goals and mission. Because of…

This document is the U.S. Department of Education's first report to Congress on the Goals 2000: Educate America Act. It includes a brief history of the 1994 law, a description of how states and school districts are using their Goals 2000 money, a look at how the program is helping to reshape the department's technical-assistance effort, and a…

As of January 1996, 20 states had enacted charter school laws. This brief summarizes the history of charter school laws and updates their current status across the country. The brief presents the findings of various charter school research projects conducted at the state and national levels. When substantive changes have been made to existing…

The momentum of Outcome Based Education (OBE) appears to be growing. This paper presents an overview of OBE and its prospects for successful educational change. Successful implementation requires 3 to 5 years; the involvement of administrators and staff in the development process; the use of a top-down approach; alignment of all areas with one…

There is, among some groups in America today, a sense of urgency about educational reform. This publication summarizes the proceedings of the 1996 National Education Summit held in Palisades, New York. Governors and business, education, and community leaders met to initiate a national effort to establish high academic standards, assessment, and…

This paper explores current Colorado postsecondary academic assessment and accountability efforts and offers a framework for decision-making about how to alter or enhance those efforts. The paper makes a distinction between assessment and accountability efforts from the statewide perspective. Assessment is defined as the use of measurement…

The Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory's (McREL's) Mid-continent Alliance focuses on technical areas that must be considered by every school system that is serious about reform. This document contains four articles that focus on four important pieces of the school-reform puzzle: (1) standards and benchmarks for learning; (2)…

This digest considers the use of performance assessment within outcomes-based accountability systems for students with and without disabilities. Application of performance assessment to students with disabilities involves defining the outcomes, developing performance standards, developing assessment accommodations, and scoring. Implications of…