Efforts to increase academic expectations and improve the school climate at Fairfield (Ohio) High School have resulted in a record high in ACT test scores, a decrease in failure and dropout rates, and a dramatic increase in attendance as well as in the percentage of students taking foreign languages, math, and science. Some policy changes…

The quality of education obtained by student-athletes in large-scale collegiate athletic programs is assessed. Attention is directed to a proposed bill that would require university athletic departments to maintain an accurate accounting of all athletes under scholarship, organized by sport, in order to evaluate their academic progress. The…

Stressing the importance of proper management and careful integration of instructional and support programs, this monograph argues that access and selectivity in the community college can complement and temper each other. Chapter I offers a brief historical overview of the relationship between access and selectivity in American higher education,…

A survey of public high school principals asked which policies, programs, and practices designed to improve learning were currently in operation at their schools, and whether these policies were instituted or substantially strengthened in the past 5 years. These policies reflect the school-level recommendations for education reform made in "A…

The master's degree is reviewed in terms of its current status and rate of conferral, its diversity, standards, and the dominant program models. Changes in the patterns of master's degrees conferred, by discipline, are examined, and problems associated with the proliferation of degrees are noted. Diversity in curricular models is cited as a source…

This study examined one urbanized Southeastern county school district's experience in attempting to implement an educational reform program that called, among other things, for higher standards. By focusing on standardized norm-based and criterion-referenced educational tests administered to students according to grade level, this school system…

The history of the American law school since the 1850s is discussed. During the period after 1800, the replicas of the English legal profession were almost nonexistent in the United States, and Jacksonian Democracy was characterized by a decline in formal standards for legal education. In the early 1850s, law began again to be seen as a learned…

Students' perceptions concerning quality in education, the norm-reference approach to student evaluation, and the problem of assessing how much learning has occurred are discussed. To one sample of students, quality meant desirable institutional characteristics and outcomes concerning their own learning and development. Institutions are likely to…

More than thirty states, as well as numerous local school districts, have adopted some form of student minimum competency program. Such programs vary widely in their purposes which range all the way from instructional and curriculum planning to deciding whether students are promoted from grade to grade. Thus far, there has been little actual…

A study was conducted at Miami-Dade Community College (MDCC) to determine the comparability of the two tests used in Florida to assess students' entry-level skills, the Florida Multiple Assessment Programs and Services (MAPS) battery and the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). The study also sought to determine the effect of altering SAT cutoff scores…

This paper reports on a study developed to determine what experts in the area of educational research perceive as the basic skills and knowledge areas that one who has successfully completed a one-semester graduate course in educational research should possess. A decision was made to conduct a Delphi study to identify these skills and knowledge…

Synopses are presented of nine recent reports on educational reform in the United States: (1) "Who Will Teach Our Children?"; (2) "What Works: Research About Teaching and Learning"; (3) "Tomorrow's Teachers: A Report of the Holmes Group"; (4) "A Nation Prepared: Teachers for the 21st Century"; (5) "What Next? More Leverage for Teachers"; (6)…

A study was conducted at Broward Community College (BCC) to compare the performance on the College Level Academic Skills Test (CLAST) of examinees with college preparatory experience to that of examinees without this experience. Data were drawn from CLAST tapes for the 1988-89 academic year and from BCC's admissions file. Passing rates for each…

In fall 1985, the San Jose/Evergreen Community College District began using a computerized prerequisite checking system to strengthen academic standards. Over the next 4 years, the computerized system shifted from an informational mode, which merely indicated whether a student met course prerequisites or not, to a lock out mode, which prevented a…

This paper examines the potential influence of school reform policies on the high school dropout rate. We summarize a diverse set of reports on American education which recommend increasing academic standards in schools as a means for improving secondary school performance. We also describe our understanding of the processes by which youngsters…