All students need to develop essential academic skills and to acquire a knowledge base on which to build lifelong learning. To this end, Texas has implemented sweeping reforms of the state's public education system in the form of House Bill (HB) 72. This legislation essentially revamped every aspect of public education. This report gives a summary…

State control over education appears to be increasing as a result of state efforts to develop specific programs in response to calls for educational excellence. Missouri's Excellence in Education Act of 1985 was just such an effort and was aimed particularly at improving teaching by attracting and retaining teachers of high quality. The act…

This document begins by presenting a general summary of Iowa's current school finance law, which dates back to steps taken in 1967 by the 62nd General Assembly, and by providing a current state aid chronology, organized by year, general assembly number, session, bill, and major features. Subsequent sections provide descriptions of the following:…

This booklet presents the proceedings of a conference on the relationship between bilingual education and desegregation in California. The topics covered by the speakers at the general session were: (1) Desegregation and Bilingual Education: A National Perspective; (2) Legal Requirements Related to Desegregation and Bilingual Education; (3) Role…

This document, the second in a series, delineates mandatory procedures for onsite school evaluations as adopted by the Ohio State Board of Education, pursuant to the adoption of the 1983 minimum standards. These procedures give direction to the system of education in Ohio, while allowing flexibility within the standards to establish educational…

This document examines approaches to educational reform currently under consideration in the Pacific Northwest and discusses policy issues involved with these reform efforts. The introduction discusses broad-scale policy issues, including the setting of priorities amid the diversity of reforms, the clarifying of beliefs and selection of changes…

This study focused on the implementation of "top-down" California state-initiated reform in secondary schools and the impact of that process on several outcomes: student academic achievement and the capacity of the organization to carry out ongoing reform. The research was part of a broader study of secondary school reform and how the…

This report represents the efforts of a commission of 20 citizens who were directed by the Illinois General Assembly to identify the principal problems in Illinois' elementary and secondary schools and to recommend specific actions for improving the State's educational program. The commission concluded that student learning should be the foremost…

This paper contains an overview of selected school finance cases litigated in local, state, and federal courts. The first section contains a review of state school finance cases. Constitutional challenges to states' school finance systems were affirmed by the Connecticut Supreme Court, defeated by the Michigan Court of Appeals, and returned to a…

Designed for secondary school social studies teachers, this curriculum outline offers suggestions for teaching about the governance, cost, and sources of fiscal support for public education. Although the outline is specifically designed for use by teachers in Michigan, it can be adapted for use in any state. Arranged into five major sections,…

This paper analyzes college entrance examinations and graduation rates as indicators of the quality of education and of school systems in the South. The following implications and conclusions are discussed: (1) Scholastic Aptitude Tests (SATS) were designed to measure outcomes for students intending to continue on to higher education and thus are…

The capabilities of a distance education system to enhance instructional programs of small schools by providing equity and increasing quality of educational opportunity, providing access to subject matter and subject matter experts, and providing interaction and joint activities with students in other schools are of sufficient merit to formulate…

In 1980-81 field tests were undertaken in North Carolina to develop a procedure for making writing competency a minimum requirement for graduation from high school. Measuring writing skills with adequate validity and reliability requires planning for data collection and varied scoring methods, personnel training, dissemination of assessment…

To help make school districts more accountable without resorting to minimum competency testing, the Minnesota legislature in 1976 passed a law requiring the state's 434 districts to prepare annual planning and evaluation reports (PERs). The PER law obliges districts to develop educational policies and review them annually; create an instructional…

The materials in this manual are designed to help workshop leaders prepare for and present a workshop for school board members on the political roles played by the board and its individual members. Three possible workshop focuses are treated, covering political roles at the local level, at the state level, and, in cases of cooperation, between…