An examination is provided of state policies relating to transfer and articulation and of the transfer problems and issues reported by community, technical, and junior colleges and students in various states. First, an executive summary addresses such issues as misunderstandings about the transfer/articulation phenomenon, trends revealed in state…

Policies to change the way teachers are trained, licensed, and compensated constitute a major part of the educational reform agendas advanced by state governments over the past several years. These policies have been extremely difficult to implement, and state officials face the prospect that many of them will need substantial modification. This…

This position paper presents arguments countering the proposed closing of select small schools--particularly one geographically isolated school--in Randolph County, West Virginia. The first section briefly summarizes the county board of education's plan and rationale for school consolidation and the concerns of residents opposed to the school…

In 1983 California enacted a comprehensive bill containing dozens of education reform provisions (Senate Bill 813). A sample of 17 secondary schools was selected in order to understand if a number of state-level education reform features could be implemented locally. The major study findings listed below are described in greater detail in the…

Information to assist local school communities in developing successful educational accountability programs is presented in this report. Based on local school district autonomy, educational accountability in Colorado is viewed as a school improvement process, with a focus on student achievement, graduation, and attendance. Information is presented…

The State of California, as it seeks to revise the Master Plan for Higher Education, is grappling with circumstances similar to those underpinning the revision of the United States' original Articles of Confederation. The delegates to the 1787 Constitutional Convention had to identify the task before them; determine how the country would be…

The two papers in this document focus on two different major educational reforms and their continuing central issues in California's comprehensive school finance legislation of 1981. The first report, "The Waiver Process for California's Educational Code," by David R. Pacheco, examines the legislation that delegated to nonelected board…

Most recent initiatives to improve teaching may be characterized as top-down, compliance-oriented policies that seek to increase accountability and regulate different aspects of the profession. Little regard has been paid to the development of assistance programs at the state level that aim at building capacity among teachers and local school…

The Regional High School of Excellence in northern Chautauqua County, New York, was intended to be a school for gifted students from throughout the region. Six committees made up of teachers, administrators, school board members, local business leaders, parents, and students from participating school districts studied and planned different aspects…

This case study examines the development and implementation of secondary education policy in Ontario as defined in "Ontario Schools: Intermediate and Senior Divisions (OSIS)--1984." Data were gathered for the period from 1980 when the Secondary Education Review Project (SERP) was initiated, to 1984 when the policy outlined in OSIS was to…

The data presented in this report are from the 1986-87 school year public education agency universe survey of the Common Core of Data conducted annually by the Center for Education Statistics. Data for this report were provided by state education agencies from their administrative records. Six tables show the number and percentage of public…

A concerted effort to pool resources and coordinate work by federal, state, and local educational agencies will be necessary to overcome the fragmentation that is occurring due to the current climate of changing demographics, increasing illiteracy, and the social effects of minorities in our schools. California has shown major changes in the…

This paper contests a 1985 report by the Illinois State Board of Education, which asserted that small schools are inferior and inefficient, that student achievement is significantly related to school size, and that a high school enrollment of 500-1200 students is necessary for a broad choice of academic courses and extracurricular activities. It…

A long-range school improvement program, under the direction of the Pennsylvania State Department of Education, was developed to coordinate and articulate the curriculum, as well as to structure school management and other district operations. Featured in the plan are: (1) a statewide testing program called "Educational Quality…

A description is given of the structure and operation of 29 intermediate administrative units which provide consulting, advisory, administrative, or statistical services to local school districts in Pennsylvania. The basic services rendered by the units are in the areas of: (1) curriculum development and instructional improvement; (2) management;…