Recommendations by the National Council on Education Standards and Testing (NCEST) are provided concerning whether national standards and a system of assessments are desirable and feasible and how national standards and a system of assessments are to be developed and implemented. The NCEST found that the absence of explicit national standards…

The minutes of eight Regional Forums (RFMs) conducted by the National Education Goals Panel (NEGP) to solicit public comments on recommendations by the six NEGP Resource Groups (RGPs) concerning the President's and governors' six national education goals are presented. Between April 12 and May 17, 1991, eight governors conducted RFMs attended by…

The report describes a 2-year Texas project which identified academic competencies needed by first-year college students in the areas of reading, writing, mathematics, and critical thinking. Presentations at conferences and educational meetings brought the competencies and their implications to the attention of over 300 Texas educators. Additional…

Chandler (Arizona) High School has reported a dramatic increase in student achievement levels since implementing a number of management, curriculum, and discipline policy changes. Among the program changes that contributed to these gains are: (1) creation of a positive school environment, with high expectations for teachers, emphasis on high…

Perspectives on college admission and problems of articulation between secondary and postsecondary institutions are addressed by a representative of the American Council on Education's Task Force on Higher Education Issues. It is suggested that there is widespread confusion about what colleges require for admission, and that many high school…

Four associate degree nursing curriculums are presented, along with competencies, program guidelines, and job opportunities identified as those appropriate for the associate degree nursing programs offered in the North Carolina community college system. Chapter I introduces North Carolina's curriculum development project and the phases in which…

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) recently promulgated rules that make athletes' initial eligibility conditional upon the achievement of certain scores on college entrance examinations and completion of a specified high school curriculum with a minimum grade point average of 2.0 on a 4.0 scale. The changes were instituted to…

This volume summarizes the reports of the following commissions and study groups on secondary school reform: (1) National Commission on Excellence in Education ("A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform"); (2) Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching ("High School: A Report on Secondary Education in America," by Ernest…

Seventeen thousand Marylanders affirmed the importance of specific citizenship competencies as graduation requirements. This was the finding when the Maryland State Department of Education surveyed citizens to answer the question of what competencies should be taught in the public schools. The citizenship competencies were approved as graduation…

A project to identify competencies needed by students entering college was undertaken jointly by the New Mexico Department of Education and the Commission on Higher Education. The first step was to review statewide data on enrollment in developmental/remedial college courses of graduates from New Mexico's public secondary schools. After a…

This document is the second edition of a guide that is part of a series of performance-based teacher education (PBTE) modules and is intended to help those serving as resource persons in vocational teacher education programs designed around the modules and those serving in that capacity where the modules are used for competency-based staff…

Relevant policy issues for early childhood special education (ECSE) programs to consider in the areas of exit decision making and follow-up procedures are identified in this report. These issues were generated through extensive naturalistic case studies of four ECSE programs located in urban, suburban, and rural communities and were selected to…

Academic testing observed in a year-long study of kindergarten classes in 15 districts was primarily concerned with whether children were succeeding with the content of a basal reader readiness workbook that essentially dealt with phonics. Such success was viewed as a prerequisite for the first preprimer in the basal series, the use of which…

Aspects of proposed higher education reforms that involve assessment of students learning are clarified by the president of the Educational Testing Service. Governors and state legislators are advised not to adopt state minimum competency standards for higher education. It is claimed that the responsibility for setting instructional standards and…

An integrative approach to departmental design proposed for the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of the District of Columbia is described. The proposed curriculum classification framework for faculty assignment consists of three matrices: social behavior and humanities courses, technical courses, and philosophical courses. For the…