A survey was conducted in Scotland's Lothian region to ascertain views on education provision for children under age 5. Subjects were over 400 nursery nurses, more than 1,100 parents, and staff members, at 175 nursery schools. The research questions covered six areas: (1) background information on parents and children; (2) benefits of nursery…

This document consists of two issue briefs that provide information on the new federal welfare program, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families. Part I looks at these requirements of the new law: development of a state plan that describes how the state will ensure that welfare recipients are working within 2 years; determination of what activities…

Many colleges and universities, in responding to public demand for higher education and the external challenges it creates, are employing Total Quality Management (TQM) techniques to improve quality, increase productivity, and decrease costs. The quality improvement process itself (the tools for problem identification and developing solutions),…

Measures to improve parent and student choice of school have recently become an important issue for educational reform in a number of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This book summarizes the school-choice experiences of selected OECD countries. The data, collected by the OECD/Centre for Educational Research…

This report, one of a series of country studies on higher education and employment particularly in continuing professional education, looks at recent developments in Germany in distance education. In particular the study compares its development in the Federal Republic of Germany and the former German Democratic Republic. The first of two main…

This manual is designed to facilitate the planning and implementation of an environmental scanning project in Michigan's community colleges. (Environmental scanning is a systematic process for gathering and analyzing information about the external environment and relating it to an organization's internal environment.) This facilitator's guide is…

The study examined student access to higher education in Florida by analyzing the state's current policy regarding student access and articulation, the statewide articulation agreement and the uniformity of its application, the limited access programs and their effect on student mobility, enrollment funding policies and their effect on student…

The educational reform movement produced only incremental improvements in student achievement, prompting a need for greater focus on structural and cultural aspects of school organization. Parental choice is the necessary element for successful school reform in the future. The public educational system that has evolved in America is widely…

This document reports the policy statement of the President of the University of the State of New York regarding vocational education in the five largest cities in the state. The statement provides background on how changes in the economy and the organization of work will affect the skills needed by the work force of the future. It also indicates…

A review of the University of Alaska's operating and capital budget submission for fiscal year 1985 is presented. The review is directed at the educational and programmatic impact of the budget request. In addition, 11 recommendations endorsed by the Alaska Commission on Postsecondary Education are analyzed. Additional contents include: the…

A qualitative study of adults aged 65-74 investigated why few of them participated in organized educational activities. Interviews were conducted with 33 individuals at seven senior citizen centers in or near Houston, Texas. They included eight Caucasian females, six Black females, nine Hispanic females, one Oriental female, five Hispanic males,…

Demographic analyses and projections provide a reasonably good portrait of the students of the 21st century and should be considered when planning for their education. Melding U.S. fertility and immigration data, it is clear that the future of the United States will be steadily more minority and less white. Shortly after the turn of the century,…

This skills inventory for agricultural occupations was developed by a technical committee in Montana to assist in the development of model curricula and to address state labor market needs. The committee included employers from the forestry industry, members from trade and professional associations, and educators. The validated task list and…

Recent and projected advances in and commercial applications of lasers and laser technology were examined in order to assist vocational planners in responding to skill needs that will be created by lasers in the next few years. Until recently, most laser applications were in research and development settings; however, in the last several years…

As educational demands change, it is important to continually adjust the operation of educational organizations, and this must not be a haphazard adjustment. The effectiveness and fairness of the adjustment changes according to who is viewing it. It is a complex process with great potential for conflict from the vantage point of students, parents,…