School report cards can help focus the conversation about a school's long-range goals and how they might be achieved, and then provide the means to track progress from year to year. This document describes the characteristics of good report cards, the relationship of report cards to local decision making, and ways to link reports to school…

This report provides an overview of House Bill 1, 74th Texas Legislature, the appropriations act for the state of Texas for the 1996-97 biennium, focusing on those aspects of the bill devoted to higher education. Nearly 42 percent of the $80.2 billion budget is devoted to education, with $9.9 billion appropriated for higher education. The Higher…

In this book, educational scholars and practitioners examine school-restructuring processes, particularly those involved in site-based management. Following the introduction and overview by John J. Lane and Edgar G. Epps, part 1 examines concepts and theories that relate to school restructuring in general and to school-based management in…

This report describes the outcomes of a one-year federally funded pilot study of 14 students with low vision or blindness (grades 3-6) and 13 teachers. The study was designed to generate practical classroom assessment procedures for measuring "learned helplessness" and recommendations for a conceptual intervention model for use in the classroom.…

In the last decades, a number of states have passed legislation identifying the conditions under which state officials can and should intervene in the operation of school districts. This paper uses a grounded qualitative approach to develop a lexicon of concepts and a framework for comparing intervention laws across states. The paper analyzes the…

The Jersey City (New Jersey) Public Schools became the first school district in the United States to be taken over and fully operated by a state agency on October 4, 1989. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the first 2 years during which the takeover was implemented, with a focus on the internal and external forces that affected…

In the late 1980s, state and district policymakers turned their attention from the number of academic courses to the quality of the core academic content being taught in public schools. This report focuses on the development and progress of standards-based reform in 9 states and 25 districts during 1994 and 1995. The states included California,…

This report contains recommendations made by the Arizona Committee on Decentralization, who identified issues in the implementation of decentralization in Arizona's public schools. The report presents an overview of the definition and purposes of decentralization and findings of a survey of 4,100 Arizona public school teachers and principals…

Information about Colorado's second year of progress toward its 1995 educational goals is summarized. Data were based on a review of progress reports submitted to the State Board of Education by individual districts. Progress in addressing each of the state goals and priority objectives is evaluated in the following areas: (1) graduation rate…

While much attention has been paid to educational reform or restructuring efforts to improve the nation's schools, the fiscal aspects of reform have received little attention. The Education Commission of the States studied 20 school districts in 6 states (California, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, and South Carolina) to determine what impact…

This survey sought to assess progress in implementing health education programs in state residential schools for the hearing and visually impaired, to assess the extent that comprehensive school health education is required, and to compare implementation of health education with implementation of Human Immunodeficiency Virus/Acquired Immune…

Many states are adopting results-oriented school accountability systems. Some of the difficult issues that states are working through as they set up and implement strategies for academic intervention are discussed in this report. The report examines the "machinery" that needs to be in place to enable and support a program of state intervention…

This paper focuses on the history and utilization of special education funding in the Green Valley Area Education Agency 14 (AEA 14). AEA 14 is the most rural AEA in Iowa and serves 22 public school districts and 1 parochial school district. AEA 14 has lagged financially due to its sparse population and low special education funding. Services such…

Teacher Assistance Teams (TAT) can support the collaboration and empowerment of teachers, address student and schoolwide problems, provide preventive intervention for at-risk students, and identify appropriate referrals to special education. This paper describes the implementation of TAT throughout the state of Arkansas over a 3-year period.…

The highlights of research conducted by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE) on the state regulation of schools and districts are summarized in this report. State education regulation can be classified into three types, depending upon whether the focus is on school inputs, processes, or outputs. Based primarily on four state case…