Educational facility planners should join with state education department and legislative research personnel and even courts to generate model policies and funding mechanisms addressing state involvement in local capital outlay financing. (MLF)

Discusses the political ideology and basic principles of the school-centered reforms of New South Wales. Describes the reform package; reports on progress during the first year of implementation; and evaluates major issues that have delayed the process of change. Concludes with an attempt to predict future outcomes. (23 references) (MLF)

The Annenberg Rural Challenge believes that high academic standards can help achieve excellence, but can also be exploited to serve other political purposes. Standards should originate in the community. The policy statement discusses three kinds of standards, the dangers of standards, and the relationship between high standards and educational…

Describes California's efforts to examine and shape beginning teacher induction policies in the California New Teacher Project and its successor, the Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment Program. Key research findings related to support and assessment and the emerging policy directions resulting from this work are presented. (SM)

Bucking a longstanding tradition of local control, the Idaho Legislature launched mandatory statewide standards in reading in 1999. The Idaho Reading Indicator now monitors the progress of early readers three times a year. Innovative local strategies to help struggling readers are described, and the importance of a systemic approach to reform and…

The introduction of computer technology has touched off an actual revolution for teaching and learning activities. In the present study, we investigated the impact of the implementation and use of computers in the public school system, from the elementary grades to high school, in Niteroi city, Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). This city, with a total…

In spite of 1983 legislation intended to equalize financial differences among school districts, Pennsylvania continues to experience inequalities in school funding. A study of Pennsylvania school finance over a 10-year period, 1984-85 through 1993-94, examined differences in spending among the 25 lowest spending districts (Lo-25) and the 25…

In 1995, Arkansas enacted two new bills that changed the way in which schools were financed. Act 916 required all school districts to levy a 25-mill tax based on an assessment ratio of 20 percent of use value on all property for maintenance and operation. The act also revised biennial appropriations for the State Department of Education,…

Arkansas' new finance law, Act 917, is difficult to understand because it has not been logically organized. This paper explains in detail the following provisions of the law: average daily membership (ADM) computation; local share; minimum and maximum millage; state support (including how priorities are set and the forms of state aid not covered,…

In June 1992, the firm of Towers Perrin/Cresap released its management study of the Baltimore (Maryland) City Schools and offered numerous recommendations to restructure the school system. The Maryland General Assembly accepted most of this report and directed the State Department of Education to monitor implementation of the recommendations. In…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB), with the help of its Educational Technology Cooperative and its Wide Area Networking Task Group, designed a survey to identify the computer networking resources in the 15 SREB states. The survey was conducted to identify: (1) the various statewide educational networks in each of the SREB states; (2)…

This report details enrollment projections for the public colleges and universities in Maryland through the year 2005. There are headcount projections for each higher education institution, with breakdowns by full- and part-time undergraduates and, as applicable, full- and part-time graduate/professional students. Projections are based on the…

Compared to the organization of two-year education in other states, Pennsylvania can be said to have a "non-system" in which local determination predominates and state planning and coordination agencies are little more than advisory bodies. California, for example, has a much larger and more regulated system than Pennsylvania, with the…

The Virginia Department of Education is developing a plan that would require all students to complete a common core of learning with outcomes based on seven dimensions of living. Students successfully completing a statewide assessment of critical knowledge and skills by the end of 10th grade would continue their education by choosing one of three…

A research project that developed methods for describing, organizing, analyzing, and predicting state education policy activity had as its major focus the way that values affect that policy. Data were drawn from six states: Wisconsin, Illinois, California, Arizona, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They were chosen to represent ranges of political…