Focuses on programs that address the needs of at-risk high school students and graduates through remedial and supplemental courses at community and technical colleges, citing models in Connecticut, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Discusses difficulties in funding. In the absence of reform, community colleges will continue in this role. (DM)

Describes the Minnesota Tech Prep Consortia Evaluation System, which collects outcomes data on enrollment, retention, related job placement, higher education, dropouts, and diplomas/degrees awarded. Explains outcome measures, database development, data collection and analysis methods, and remaining challenges. (SK)

A Southern Regional Education Board study has revealed widespread lack of proper training and certification for teachers at the middle school level in the South. A major recommendation is that states require teachers of middle-grade students to have special licensure. Some efforts in statewide testing and accreditation are targeting such problems.…

Examines nationally collected data on the placement rates of students with disabilities across the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Results indicate that some states have made significant progress toward serving students with disabilities in less restrictive settings, whereas others have made very little progress. (CR)

Draws attention to some of the unexamined assumptions on which W. Bowen and D. Bok base their analysis and considers some of the unintended, and often undesired, consequences of racial preferences in college admissions. (SLD)

Discusses UtahLINK, the most widely connected state online education system in the United States, and SiteFIre, a server-resident software package that speeds up Web access and stores Web-site data directly in user-designated folders. Describes the instructional possibilities and benefits of using UtahLINK and SiteFire. (AEF)

Claims the Australian Literacy Benchmarks for Year 3 and Year 5 set unrealistic standards, are educationally unworkable, and represent an unacceptably imprecise and confusing set of statements and criteria. Compares the Literacy Benchmarks with the New South Wales English Language and Literacy Assessment (ELLA). Claims the Benchmarks represent a…

Describes Project CREATE (Caregiver Recruitment, Education, and Training Enhancement), designed to improve the quality of community-based child care programs in Delaware, and provided in three 1-credit modules at no cost to participants. Identifies barriers to providing education to infant and toddler caregivers. Presents preliminary evaluation…

Uses focus group data (groups of 7, 12, 8, and 5) to examine how cross-subject matter groups of elementary and secondary New York state teachers respond to state-level testing as a way to change their classroom practices. The analyses highlight the nature of the tests, professional development for teachers, and the rationales for and consequences…

Summarizes recent developments in the use of technology in schools and state-level testing programs. Presents results of two studies, one with 114 students and one with about 200 students, that indicate that written tests administered on paper underestimate the achievement of students accustomed to working with computers. (SLD)

Offers a multiperspective description of what happened to elementary and secondary education in British Columbia in the wake of the 1988 Sullivan Royal Commission on Education Report. Requests separation of politics and educational reform. (VWC)

An analytic framework is presented for examining the properties and objectives of assessments and scoring systems piloted in a number of state and district testing programs. The article explores the application of this framework, which considers the cognitive components of competence described in studies of expertise, to the analysis of science…

Discusses factors affecting the ability of states and local programs to seek and secure reimbursement for occupational and physical therapy services in early childhood programs. Cost concerns in early childhood are addressed, and strategies for ensuring programmatic success in securing reimbursement for such services are presented. (Author/CR)

Describes the DTL (Distance Teaching and Learning) Academy that was developed to help South Dakota's teachers use technology more effectively, including two-way videoconferencing equipment. Topics include goals; influence of the TTL (Teaching and Learning Academy); developing distance education courses; professional development opportunities for…

Visually impaired persons (n=871) with developmental disabilities, in 42 states, were surveyed to determine effects of separate state blindness-specific vocational rehabilitation agencies on the receipt of services. Results suggest that clients in states with specialized agencies were less likely to receive services, except when the agency in…