The increasing costs, paid by the Department of Education through 47 loan guaranty agencies, for defaulted loans made through the Guaranteed Student Loan Program prompted the General Accounting Office (GAO) to evaluate the policies and procedures used by the Department and the guaranty agencies. The purposes were to determine whether: (1) the…

The problems of urban public schools and current reform efforts are examined in this issue of "FOCUS," a publication of the Educational Testing Service. Declining support from parents and teachers, budget cuts, declining enrollment and deficiencies in student performance in mathematics and science skills are among the problems discussed.…

The difficulties faced by Chicago's public school system have prompted two state-level investigative bodies to recommend the breaking up of the system into smaller, locally controlled units. Without exhaustively reviewing all of the factors involved in making the transition from a centralized to a decentralized school governance structure, this…

General considerations in evaluating bilingual education programs and data aggregation at the state and national levels are presented. Federal and state information requirements and accountability guidelines include the needs for information/data for various audiences, for evaluation resources, for increased project capability to conduct…

Proceedings of a 1981 conference on professional competence and the law are presented. The perspectives of educators Leon Trakman, Murray Fraser, and Stewart Macaulay concerning the educational needs of the legal profession and the role of the law school are presented. The Canadian justices McIntyre and Cowan comment on the quality of lawyers'…

This report, the first statewide master plan for postsecondary education in Alaska, outlines strategies and recommendations to achieve the following planning goals: (1) promote excellence to improve educational service; (2) enhance accountability of the educational process; (3) foster efficiency within the enterprise; and (4) improve access to…

The Salt Lake City School District (SLCSD) teacher evaluation system, which includes peer review and assistance for deficient teachers, was instituted in 1975. The Performance Assistance program provides for strong, experienced teachers (peer reviewers) to work with teachers identified by their principals as deficient. This study addresses the…

A discussion is presented of the relationship between community college general education mathematics courses and the technical education curricula they support. Introductory remarks sketch the history and emphasis of community colleges; review President Truman's Commission on Higher Education's recommendations concerning the functions of…

A technique to measure the quality of agricultural extension programs by the clientele was developed and tested. The study was conducted in three major steps. First, unstructured interviews of forty-eight farmers and agribusiness persons in seven Ohio counties were conducted to identify those factors they considered when evaluating their county's…

The New Jersey Constitution requires that all students receive a "thorough and efficient" education. In Robinson v. Cahill, the New Jersey Supreme Court found that the state funding system and program monitoring systems were inadequate and ordered the legislature to correct these deficiencies. As a result, New Jersey has recently…

Presented are August 23, 1977 regulations for Part B of the Education of the Handicapped Act (as required by the Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975, P.L. 94-142). Regulations are noted to amend the existing regulations governing assistance to states for education of handicapped children, to add a new part on incentive grants…

Reports the positive initial assessment of California's attempt to encourage individual elementary schools to assess the needs of their children, to plan appropriate instructional settings, and to evaluate the effectiveness of their efforts. (Author/IRT)

Examines increasing application of consumerism vocabulary to postsecondary education citing federal and state action to protect students' rights as consumers. Lists steps institutions can take to avoid regulation by voluntarily complying with consumer standards of truth-in-advertising and full disclosure of pertinent information. (JT)

To examine the unique characteristics of rural social workers from five northeastern Iowa counties, interviewers examined the areas of lifestyle, supervision, flexibility, community resources, generalist casework as opposed to specialized casework, and the influence of gender in rural areas. The 3-phase field study (comprised of approximately 15…

This directory provides brief, current information about 50 goal-based education programs of many types, sizes, and scopes throughout the United States. These programs make use of such concepts as minimum competency testing, mastery learning techniques, and continuous progress curricula, among many others. The directory is organized into five…