Americans generally lack foreign language competence, and their exposure to foreign languages in the United States is inadequate. Foreign language instruction is deficient in both quality and quantity, and although there are indications of improvement in both areas, it will be many years before the effects of improvements are clear. The…

In the spring of 1985 a task force comprising private sector representatives was convened to formulate recommendations regarding the development of an overall policy framework for employment and training and related systems in Virginia. The task force was asked to focus their efforts on the following policy areas: training and retraining the adult…

Information on educational equity in California is presented in this supplementary report. Issues in the state, resources, proposals, and areas for action are addressed. Areas of analysis include: income for men and women by race and years of education; the numbers of Black and Hispanic students that graduate from high school, enroll in college,…

It is becoming increasingly apparent that rural communities will have to alter their economic patterns as the United States economy shifts and rural areas cannot compete successfully with cities for emerging industries and future jobs. Instead of catering to the large firms and high-tech companies that are expected to predominate in the future,…

Recent economic and technological changes, as well as changes in the very nature of work, have forced business institutions to redirect themselves. Consequently, human resource development (HRD) activities are no longer a group of diverse practices at the periphery of a few organizations. Rather, the scope of HRD has expanded to include solving…

This book, based on the author's theory of "success emulation," presents 12 detailed lessons for school districts in adopting principles and practices that have worked for the best-run companies in America. Each lesson presents a step-by-step practical guide for achieving excellence in education by explaining what businesses are doing to…

Changing population patterns, inflated housing costs, and cuts in school financing have forced many school districts to face school closures and school consolidation as a way of maintaining solvency. This report reviews the literature on school consolidation with attention to the fact that the need to consolidate now faces elementary schools as…

Concrete descriptions of what has be done to improve undergraduate education at King's College, Pennsylvania are provided in this book, which represents a change agent's perspective on implementing an outcomes oriented curriculum and course-embedded assessment model. The necessity to achieve excellence in undergraduate education through…

The six-chapter book highlights the main issues and findings of the 1979 New Delhi Conference on Non-formal Education for Development. Chapter 1 defines non-formal education, discusses development needs, and discusses motivation at the political, operational, and participatory level. Chapter 1 includes two case studies of non-formal education in…

Seven papers from the 1988 CAUSE conference's Track IV, Organization and Personnel Issues, are presented. They include: "Positive Management: Techniques and Retreats" (Janet Wixson); "Data Administration: What Is It, Where Is It, How Is It Done?" (Karen L. Miselis, Lawrence A. Jordan, and Ronald Hoover); "The Departmental…

Issues concerning declining college enrollments of black students are addressed, with attention to: the need for both access and quality, trends affecting college enrollment, and targets for state action. It is argued that black student access to higher education will be a hollow achievement unless it is access to a quality education. At virtually…

The Situational Factors Checklist was developed to describe variables which influence changes within a school and was used in two different school settings. In one application, it was used as a part of a case study method to study implementation of a microcomputer project, increasing faculty computer literacy, at different community colleges. The…

An advisory committee comprised of school officials and community members was formed to assess the provision of special vocational programming to handicapped students served by the Vigo County School Corporation (Indiana). The committee examined student needs-related, school and curriculum-related, and business-related issues addressed in Federal…

The circumstances preceding and following the 1984 merger of two small school districts in North Central New York State contained cooperation, controversy, and disharmony. The school districts had enough similarities--in their rural, agricultural base, in the pride and loyalty with which many residents viewed their schools, in the central role…

This paper sets forth and clarifies state-level policy issues that are implicit in the recommendations for reform provided by recent major reports on the status of American education. For each report under consideration, four questions are posed: (1) Who is recommending what? (2) Does the recommendation make sense in a state's total program? (3)…