School finance has traditionally concentrated on the distribution of resources to school districts, focusing primarily on the equitable distribution of funds within a state. In recent years, more attention has been paid to the issue of productivity-how effectively school districts use the funds they receive to provide education to students. This…

This report focuses on a decision-making model developed at the National Center for Early Development and Learning (NCEDL) and designed to help decisionmakers and policy analysts weigh various policy options for a public issue such as childcare quality. The matrix allows users to compare strategies in terms of desirability and feasibility factors…

This bulletin, the first technical assistance bulletin produced by the Special Education Effective Practices Section of the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, is intended to share research-based promising practices with educators including family members, teachers, building administrators, and paraprofessionals. It…

This paper, which is part of a larger comparative project, outlines a conceptual framework for studying large-scale education reform across political jurisdictions. A great deal of comparative work on education reform is now being done, but this work often lacks a clearly articulated conceptual frame. This paper, based on studies of change in five…

This paper provides an overview of legal responsibilities of school districts relating to "Do Not Resuscitate" (DNR) orders for children who are medically fragile. It addresses the incidence of school children who are medically fragile and differences in state laws that affect DNR orders. Attitudes that are preventing school districts…

The composition of the Estonian population has changed considerably since the second World War. The number of immigrants to Estonia has been remarkable in the second half of the century. The population in Estonia is divided into two parts: Estonian (66%) and non-Estonians (34%). The composition of the population and the language situation in…

Alignment of content standards, performance standards, and assessments is crucial. This guide contains information to assist states and districts in aligning their assessment systems to their content and performance standards. It includes a review of current literature, both published and fugitive. The research is woven together with a few basic…

This report presents the findings of the state legislature's Management Audit Committee's review of the structure and governance of community colleges in Wyoming, as requested by the Legislature's Management Council in September 1998. In trying to answer questions about the structure of community college governance, the tensions present in the…

This report explores why some schools may be better than others at helping students learn. It responds to the congressionally mandated Special Study Panel on Education Indicators, which asked the National Center for Education Statistics to examine indicators of the health of the nation's educational system. The report reviews the literature on…

The University of Maryland, College Park recognized in the 1990s that its institutional data was an asset that needed to be managed. In this Information Age, data must be turned into knowledge quickly and accurately. The University of Maryland implemented a campus data warehouse, and along with it a comprehensive meta data platform for helping…

This booklet is designed to serve as a guide for policymakers who want to involve their constituents in community dialogues on education. It contains information about what community dialogue is, why state policymakers should participate, and how to make the most of participation in a community dialogue on education. This booklet is helpful for…

This booklet is designed for anyone who is interested in bringing state policymakers and their constituents together to dialogue and deliberate about public education. It contains information about what community dialogue is, why state policymakers should be included in dialogue with members of the communities they represent, and how to…

Asserting that there is so little understanding of what "opportunity" means within the context of access to higher education that use of the word may cloud rather than clarify policy debate, this concept paper served as a resource document to aid participants at a 1999 seminar sponsored by the Council for Opportunity in Education. The paper…

This guide is intended to help people in the nursing profession, especially deans at schools of nursing, to effectively influence public policy at the federal level. Introductory material identifies key Senate and House committees and stresses the importance of establishing and maintaining a relationship with one's representatives in the Congress.…

An exploratory study was conducted with faculty and administrators at Historically Black College and Universities (HBCUs) to determine the level of reported knowledge and experience with policies that govern Web-based instruction (WBI). Result indicated that faculty had little experience with the policies and many had not participated in policy…