The external examiner approach to assessment can address concerns that American educational standards are low, curricular coherence is lacking, and college students are learning insufficiently. The discussion: (1) contrasts the conditions in British and American higher education that make the British model inappropriate for the United States; (2)…

Laredo Junior College (LJC) is a comprehensive community college in Texas, serving a student population that is 93% Hispanic and 61% female. In response to evidence that LJC was not adequately preparing students with the basic and academic skills needed to transfer, LJC expanded and restructured its assessment, placement, and remediation programs.…

The contracts at four-year colleges with a 10-year history of collective bargaining from 1975 to 1985 were analyzed to determine whether the contracts negotiated in 1975 differed from those negotiated in 1985 in the following areas: appointment, promotion, tenure, termination for cause, retrenchment, class size, number of preparations, schedule of…

This report presents the results of a survey of Louisiana and North Carolina college students and education officials to ascertain their perceptions regarding the use of minimum competency testing programs and to determine the effects of such programs on black students. Questionnaire and interview data were collected between September 1985 and…

This paper presents ideas relating to curriculum organization from the Far West Laboratory for Educational Research and Development publication, "Excellence in Our Schools: Making It Happen," which attempted to synthesize nine reports written in response to the National Commission on Excellence in Education report, "A Nation at…

This paper describes the meeting of the Reading and Writing Advisory Committee of the New Jersey Basic Skills Council with selected high school English teachers and administrators. This panel established cut scores for statewide interpretation of the New Jersey College Basic Skills Placement Test (NJCBSPT). The NJCBSPT is administered to all…

A model for planning, monitoring, and evaluating human service internships and field experiences is described. The model is organized around work roles and can easily be adopted for general job evaluation beyond intern placements. Since the curriculum should contain the generalists' skills plus specialized skills representative of defined job…

The Ford Motor Company launched a new pre-engineering curriculum for high schools in the Fall of 2004. Building on an earlier manufacturing program, the development process for the Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies took approximately three years. Ford and the course designers wanted the new program to incorporate the best principles and…

Perspectives concerning the need to reform high school and college curricula and college admission standards are considered. Until the early 1960s, most U.S. colleges offered a traditional curriculum in the lower division, with emphasis on certain skills, such as writing and arithmetic reasoning, and also on communicating certain basic cultural…

This report, volume 1 of 5 that were produced by a study, summarizes the study to address the further refinement of the physician assistant (PA) role and continuing medical education (CME) for PAs by developing standards to ensure PA competence. Methods and results of the study are discussed independently for each objective by providing a summary…

After providing evidence of the decline of student academic ability and identifying some of the factors influencing this decline, this paper examines the role of community colleges in providing compensatory education for the growing population of students who are underprepared for college-level work. This examination begins by tracing the…

Educational standards, student achievement and basic skills are discussed. Various definitions of standards are given, and a definition which encompases individual differences is preferred. Educational research conducted in New Zealand indicates that there has been no sharp decline in academic achievement, although in primary- and…

The comprehensive colleges and universities--often former normal schools that have grown quickly in recent years--are seen to be affected primarily by declining financial resources, declining enrollment, and competition, now and in the near future. Financial resources are affected by higher priority placed on other state budget items; tax…

The role of Christian day schools in meeting changing educational and social needs is evaluated and educational trends since the 1960s are reviewed. Among the solutions proposed to remedy alleged educational ills of the 1960s (including that schools were simultaneously too liberal, racist, permissive, authoritarian, and irrelevant) were free…

It is stated that a consideration of minimal outcomes is feasible and crucial to educational improvement and to pupil gain both in learning and in personal development. This guide has therefore been designed to present the fundamental core of learnings to be derived from the educational experience of the elementary and intermediate school levels.…