Principals are increasingly held accountable for student achievement. Why shouldn't schools, like other institutions, be judged on how successfully they perform their mission? Yet school leaders have a good reason to resist contemporary accountability programs. Instead of articulating the mission of schools and then holding leaders accountable for…

The Performance-Based Accountability Program was enacted by the North Carolina General Assembly in 1989 as part of the School Improvement and Accountability Act. This report addresses five components of the program and includes appendixes that provide detailed data for several of the components. The Flexible Funding Provision is made for the…

Nine articles discuss the relationship between the higher education community and the public. The articles are: (1) "On a Certain Blindness in Teaching" by Michael S. Roth, who stresses the necessity of political citizenship education for a healthy democracy; (2) "Monocultural Perspectives and Campus Diversity" by Jane Fried,…

This report presents the results of the fifth annual survey of state activities in the assessment of educational outcomes for students with disabilities. The survey of state directors of special education requested information in the areas of federally reported data, assessment of outcomes, participation of students with disabilities in state…

The New York State Office of the Comptroller performed an audit of Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) and Supplemental Tuition Assistance Program (STAP) awards at the Interboro Institute (New York) for the 1989-90 through 1991-92 academic years. Interboro Institute is a proprietary degree-granting school that offers various programs leading to…

This report describes current state monitoring systems in special education, identifies trends across states, and examines critical issues. Data are based on discussions with monitoring personnel, responses to a 1992 survey, input from meetings, and analysis of documents provided by the states. Analysis focuses on five areas: (1) the composition…

In response to legislative mandates calling on educational institutions to become more accountable for monies spent, a number of community colleges in California have implemented research and data collection models to help them answer state and local questions about institutional effectiveness. However, there is a significant difference between…

This publication, part of a series initiated in 1986, describes effective educational practices of schools that serve disadvantaged students and adds information on recent research about the characteristics of these schools to support the review. Following an introduction, four types of attributes are examined in four sections. Section 1 considers…

In 1987, parents and teachers from diverse neighborhoods of a local school district in New York (New York) founded the Bronx New School, a small public elementary school of choice that was meant to be learner-centered, with high standards for all. The school was organized into heterogeneous, multi-age classes and structured to encourage…

This booklet explains New Zealand's National Qualifications Framework, a system of quality standards affecting high schools and postsecondary colleges and universities that is to be fully operational by 1996. Following an introduction, the first section explains why the current system urgently needs changing in order to equip workers for the…

School organizations must become responsive and flexible to address rapidly changing social, economic, and demographic conditions. Reform attempts to date have not worked because they were layered on old structures and perceptions in a fragmented, piecemeal fashion. The fundamental transformation of education that is required demands a paradigm…

The Northwest Territories (NWT) Senior Practice Program (SPP) described in this manual is designed to develop self-direction, self-esteem, and skills and knowledge in specific practical areas. The secondary school SPP prepares at-risk students, at least 15 years old, for work. The program has both practical and academic components. This…

This document presents recommendations of the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) regarding the development of a future agenda for a unified (regular and special) educational system. Ten recommendations--five addressing policy and five addressing actions--are included, with a discussion of rationale and implications of each. The…

A discussion of the literature on cooperative learning and demographic trends in American education focuses on factors contributing to academic achievement in an increasingly multicultural school population. Research suggests that cooperative learning groups achieve only in the presence of two essential conditions: group goals and individual…

Rather than providing an anthology of tests and assessment techniques, this book focuses on academic success and its maintenance and the role of testing. The discussion opens with a consideration of the relationship between assessment and curriculum. It is important to consider carefully what it is we want to teach, and it is equally important to…