Public examinations in developing countries play a critical role in the selection of students for participation in the educational system. The examinations tend to be highly academic, bearing little reference to the everyday lives of students, limited to paper-and-pencil tests, and geared toward discriminating among high achieving students.…

This annual publication introduces Japan's educational policies in education, science, sports, and culture. Part 1, "Trends in Education Reform," discusses fundamental concepts in educational reform. Part 2, "Mental and Physical Health and Sports," includes two chapters. Chapter 1, "Health and Sports into the Future,"…

These 15 papers share a common theme: seeking to promote literacy as a powerful tool for challenging existing inequalities and dependencies. "Powerful Literacies" (Jim Crowther et al.) is an introduction. Section 1 establishes the theoretical and policy frameworks that underpin the book and shows how literacy is situated in different…

This document consists of the 2000 edition of the "Education Policy Analysis Archives." The papers include: (1) "Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: A Review of State Policy Evidence" (Linda Darling-Hammond); (2) "America Y2K: The Obsolescence of Educational Reforms" (Sherman Dorn); (3) "Forces for Change in…

This report briefly describes and analyzes three interrelated areas of reform of post-school education and training in the United Kingdom (chiefly England and Scotland) within the wider historic and political-cultural context. These areas are the subjects of the first three report sections. Section 1 addresses the lifelong learning initiatives of…

This annotated bibliography lists publications and World Wide Web sites dealing with health communication and literacy. The 51 publications, which were all published between 1982 and 1998, contain information about and/or for use in the following areas: assessment, assessment tools, elderly adults, empowerment, maternal and child health, patient…

Focus of this guide is a project to identify best practices and programs in preparing foster care youth for career opportunities and economic self-sufficiency. Foster care program context is described as an economy characterized by jobs clustering into two categories (high wage positions with a continuing career pathway and low wage entry-level…

This document presents five papers, each describing different experiences in the introduction, promotion and implementation of innovative adult training approaches aimed at achieving more flexibility in skill development. An introduction (Anatoli Tchaban) presents background information and a synthesis of the studies covering definitions, concepts…

This briefing book offers guidance to Congress, the Administration, and state legislatures about which issues are important to the nation's largest ethnic groups, focusing on: "Civil Rights" (hate crimes, racial profiling, sentencing reform, and voting rights); "Economic Mobility" (e.g., banking and financial services,…

Lifelong learning and skill flexibility are especially important for workers in China, where structural economic adjustment has generated 22 million layoffs from state-owned enterprises since 1997. Skills that were in huge demand in previous years, such as accounting, international trade, and language translation, are now facing serious oversupply…

In 2000, approximately 877 million adults worldwide were illiterate and 113 million children did not attend school. More than two-thirds of those individuals lived in East and South Asia, and two-thirds were females. Functional illiteracy remains high in developed and developing nations alike. The reasons include weak training in how to teach…

This document, which is intended as the companion to a two-volume study of European trends in the development of occupations and qualifications, contains reference materials to assist policymakers and practitioners in accessing research findings and formulations on key issues of training and development. The document begins with an overview of the…

Facts on career academies are provided for local school board members, superintendents, other district administrators, and building administrators. The facts are divided into three categories. The category title or the fact is followed by the numbers of the references on which that category or fact is based. The section called Components of Career…

This document explains how employers can participate in creating a new workforce investment system that is market driven, comprehensive, portable, accountable, customer focused, responsive, flexible, and customized. The guide details immediate and future steps employers can take at the state and local levels to influence the process of creating a…

Using data from several government and private sources and interviews with working families, this report examines the Arkansas economy, how Arkansas working families have fared economically in recent years, and their current challenges. The report offers suggestions about how the state can provide the tools families need to continue to move up the…