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This report presents third-year findings from an evaluation of the School Choice Scholarships Foundation Program. In 1997, this program provided scholarships via a lottery to low-income, New York City children in grades 1 through 4 that allowed them to transfer to private schools. The evaluation compared scholarship to control students, using test score, survey, and school-level data collected in the year 2000. On standardized tests, students offered scholarships performed similarly to control students. Those who ever attended private schools did not outperform those who never attended private schools. Patterns of impact for Hispanic students differed markedly from patterns for African American students in regard to test scores. Parents reported that schools and classes attended by scholarship students were smaller than those attended by public school students. Private schools were more orderly than public schools. Parents of children who switched to private schools were much more satisfied with their schools than parents of public school students. Among students offered scholarships, 53 percent used them to attend private schools for 3 full years. Parents who declined scholarships generally did so because they could not afford the added tuition and expenses. Five appendixes include research data and findings. (Contains 26 tables and 38 references.) (SM)

This paper examines the impact of vouchers on student test scores in Dayton, Ohio, New York, New York, and Washington, DC, highlighting New York City parental assessment of private and public schools to investigate why vouchers seem to have differential effects depending on the students' ethnic background. Researchers collected baseline test scores and family data prior to the voucher lotteries, administered the lotteries, and collected follow-up information 1 and 2 years later. At pretest and posttest, students entering grades 1-8 took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in reading and mathematics. Parents completed surveys regarding satisfaction with their children's schools, involvement in students' education, and demographics. Results varied systematically by ethnicity. There were no significant differences between the test scores of non-black students who moved to private schools and of the control-group students. Vouchers made a substantial, positive difference for black students but did not significantly impact Hispanic American students' test scores. All control group parents were satisfied with their children's education. Hispanic and black parents were very satisfied with private school placements, though they differed in perceptions. Private school impact on black students was not due to school size, class size, school disruptions, school communications, desegregation, dress rules, hallway monitoring, school resources, homework, parent involvement, or student involvement with the school. (Contains 10 tables and 21 endnotes.) (SM)

This report presents an evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship Program (CSP) after two years in operation. The program provided low-income families with scholarships that they could redeem at any participating Cleveland private school. The evaluation of the program involved a survey of two groups of parents in 1998: parents of children in grades 1-4 who made use of CSP vouchers to attend private schools (and had previously attended public schools) and a random sample of parents in Cleveland with first through fourth graders in public schools. Demographically, voucher recipients were more economically disadvantaged than the average public school family, but in other respects they were relatively advantaged. Voucher recipients were more likely to be African American. CSP won strong endorsement from participating low-income families. Most family background characteristics had little effect on parental satisfaction levels. Parents of voucher recipients were more likely to be very satisfied with nearly every aspect of their schools than were parents of students in Cleveland public schools. Significant differences in satisfaction were noted for teacher skills, the teaching of values, school discipline, and class size. Test scores from two private schools with large enrollments of CSP students rose. School mobility rates for voucher recipients were similar to those of students in the public schools. (SM)

The Washington Scholarship Fund Pilot Program (WSF) was established as a privately funded voucher program for low-income families in the District of Columbia. The WSF awarded its scholarships by lottery, making it possible to evaluate it as though it were a randomized experiment. The responses of qualified families with children in public schools are compared with those of families with children in private schools. Parental responses were from all applicants, and student responses were from students in grades 5 and 6. Private school samples ranged from 339 to 430 for different questions; public school samples ranged from 935 to 1,810. Students in private schools were more likely to report a positive educational climate in their schools, and parents echoed student opinions. Parental satisfaction was much higher for private schools, which demonstrated a greater capacity to stimulate parent participation and other forms of social capital among low-income, inner-city families. In applying for the program, parents were most interested in higher standards, a better curriculum, small classes, and improved safety. Although some findings could be influenced by parent self-selection through choosing to send their children to private schools, most findings held after statistical adjustments were made for demographic characteristics. An appendix describes parent characteristics. (Contains 9 tables and 25 endnotes.) (SLD)

At the request of the State of Pennsylvania, the School District of Philadelphia, in the summer of 2002, asked three for-profit firms to assume responsibility for 30 of its lowest-performing schools and it asked four nonprofit managers to assume the management of 16 other low-performing schools. A difference-in-differences analysis is used to estimate the impact of nonprofit and for-profit management on individual student achievement. Gains in test scores at the treated schools are estimated by comparing them with gains in other low-performing schools in the district. Students at schools under for-profit management outperformed those at schools under nonprofit management in all six years in both reading and math. Most estimations are statistically significant. Impacts of for-profit management relative to district management were positive in math, but no reading impacts could be detected. At nonprofits, students appear to have learned substantially less, especially in math, at nonprofit schools, than had their school remained under regular district management. However, impacts fell short of statistical significance. (Propensity Score Analysis is appended. Contains 21 endnotes and 9 tables.)

This report is one of a series exploring the way several important school districts across the country are dealing with the problems of separate and unequal education for minority students. The working of the choice and magnet school program of the Montgomery County (Maryland) public schools, a system that has never been under a court order to desegregate and in which desegregation has always been under the complete control of local officials, is profiled. Montgomery County is an affluent and highly educated community. A variety of data-collection methods were used to examine levels of segregation and concentrated poverty and the effectiveness of the county's 14 elementary magnets, 2 middle school, and 1 high school magnet, as well as to analyze schools' transfer requests and achievement trends. The study shows that choice plans and policies that are not well supervised and lack some key components to promote equal access may create merely the appearance of solving racial problems, and they may actually foster growing segregation over time. Some policy options for equal education are explored. Seventeen tables present study findings. (SLD)

Max Weber attributed the higher economic prosperity of Protestant regions to a Protestant work ethic. We provide an alternative theory, where Protestant economies prospered because instruction in reading the Bible generated the human capital crucial to economic prosperity. County-level data from late 19th-century Prussia reveal that Protestantism was indeed associated not only with higher economic prosperity, but also with better education. We find that Protestants' higher literacy can account for the whole gap in economic prosperity. Results hold when we exploit the initial concentric dispersion of the Reformation to use distance to Wittenberg as an instrument for Protestantism. Two appendixes are included: (1) Census Data for Prussia in the 1870s/1880s; and (2) The Spread of Literacy from Lutheran Times to 1871. (Contains 32 footnotes, 4 figures, and 13 tables.)

On July 14, 2006, the U. S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a study that compared the performance in reading and math of 4th and 8th-graders attending private and public schools. Using information from a nationwide, representative sample of public and private school students collected in 2003 as part of the ongoing National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the NCES study reported that the performance of students attending private schools was superior to that of students attending public schools. After statistical adjustments were made for student characteristics, the private school advantage among 4th-graders was reported to give way to a 4.5-point public school advantage in math and school-sector parity in reading. After the same adjustments were made for 8th-graders, private schools retained a 7-point advantage in reading but achieved only parity in math. In this paper, the authors argue that NCES's measures of student characteristics were flawed by inconsistent classification across the public and private sectors and by the inclusion of factors open to school influence. Utilizing the same data as the original study but substituting better measures of student characteristics, improved, alternative models identify a private school advantage in 11 out of 12 public-private comparisons. In 8th-grade math, the private school advantage varies between 3 and 6.5 test points; in reading, it varies between 9 and 12.5 points. Among 4th graders, in math, parity is observed in one model, but private schools outperform public schools by 2 and 3 points in the other two models; in 4th-grade reading, private schools have an advantage that ranges from 7 to 10 points. However, although the alternative models constitute an improvement on the NCES model, no conclusions should be drawn as to causal relationships from these or any other results based on NAEP test scores, because they are too fragile to be used for such purposes. Inferring causality from observations at one point in time is highly problematic. Appended are: (1) Variable Descriptions and Summary Statistics; and (2) The Lubienskis' Study. (Contains 9 tables.) [This paper was prepared for the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA, August 2006.]

Today, school principals are asked to lead in a new world marked by unprecedented responsibilities, challenges, and managerial opportunities. Are principal preparation programs equipping their charges for this new role? The authors examined the content of instruction at a stratified sample of the nation's principal preparation programs, including the programs training the most candidates, the programs regarded as the most prestigious, and more typical programs. Fifty-six programs were surveyed and at least four "core" course syllabi were collected from 31 that met the standards permitting systematic coding for a total of 210 syllabi. The syllabi yielded 2,424 total course weeks. Some of the key findings include: Just 2% of 2,424 course weeks addressed accountability in the context of school management or school improvement and less than 5% included instruction on managing school improvement via data, technology, or empirical research; 11% of course weeks dealt with instructional management issues like curriculum development, pedagogy, classroom management, and learning theory; and 1% of course weeks dealt with school public relations and small business skills, while less than 1% addressed parental or school board relations.

A growing body of evidence points to the size of schools as a significant determining factor in academic achievement. Large schools are often far less successful at educating students than small schools. This paper shall first examine the data which support this claim and the reasons why small schools might work better. Finally, our conclusions will be applied to North Dakota small schools, which have been under pressure from state government to dissolve and consolidate. Academic achievement data will be analyzed to show that ND small schools in fact outperform ND large schools. (Contains 81 footnotes and 2 graphs.)

Stigma and school voucher threats under a revised 2002 Florida accountability law have positive impacts on student performance. Stigma and public school choice threats under the U.S. federal accountability law, No Child Left Behind, do not have similar effects in Florida. Significant impacts of stigma, when combined with the voucher threat, are observed on the test score performance of African Americans, those eligible for free lunch, and those with the lowest initial test scores. No significant impacts of the voucher threat on the performances of whites and Hispanics are detected. Estimations rely upon individual-level data and are based upon regression analyses that exploit artificial distinctions created by cliffs within the accountability regimes. (Contains 1 appendix & 12 tables.) [Financial support for this report also provided by the National Research and Development Center on School Choice, Competition, and Achievement.]

In an era of accountability, where school leaders are expected to demonstrate bottom-line results and use data to drive decisions, the skill and knowledge of principals matter more than ever. Amidst the efforts to prepare principals for this new world, little scholarly attention has been paid to the content of what principals are actually reading in the course of their studies or whether their texts are preparing them for the rigors of accountable management. In this study, the authors examined 11 of the 13 educational administration texts most frequently assigned in a sample of 210 core syllabi from a national sample of 31 programs. They tracked the attention devoted to a number of concepts central to school leadership. The texts were sorted into three broad categories: specialized texts, general texts, and foundational texts. Three questions guided this study. The first question analyzes the degree to which the texts emphasize performance, achievement, and accountability rather than inputs or school culture. The second question explains the degree to which texts cover important management skills, and the third question deals with the critique that schools of education promote progressive or "politically correct" values.

This research was commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Foundation approached the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development with an invitation to help it define and understand the forces affecting families and children in Indian America. Specifically, the Foundation asked the Harvard Project to identify the primary actors and activities that are effectively addressing the needs of families and children; help the Foundation understand the context in which progress is being made and the reasons why some initiatives and programs are particularly effective; and to draw from these examples implications for the roles of the many actors who contribute to the well-being of children and families--tribal governments, non-tribal governments, Native NGOs, non-native NGOs, and philanthropic foundations. This report is divided into the following sections: (1) Introduction; (2) The State of Children, Families, and Communities in Indian America; (3) Case Studies in Effective Family Strengthening in Indian America; (4) A Framework for Understanding Family Strengthening in Indian America; (5) Observations on Effective Family Strengthening in Indian America; and (6) Recommendations to the Philanthropic Community. Appended are: (1) Consultative Session on Family Strengthening in Indian America; and (2) Case Studies.

In any discussion over what reform measures can best close the achievement gap between white and minority children, one cannot ignore what the courts have had to say about the issue. Advocates have historically used the court system to require elected branches of government to increase education spending and resources, even when the political will to do so is absent. Such educational enhancement "remedies" began in the early 1970s in school desegregation cases when federal courts mandated additional spending in an effort to remedy the effects of "de jure" school segregation. This paper examines the positive effects of state court educational "adequacy" cases on increasing school funding, especially in school districts with high enrollments of poor and minority students. However, it also explores other ramifications of adequacy suits that raise questions as to whether such suits are the positive force in American education portrayed by their supporters, as well as much of the media. (Contains 59 footnotes.)

This paper asserts that central to the debate over excellence and equity in education is the shifting nature of authority over public education in the schools and school districts of Greater Boston, Massachusetts, noting that the autonomy that local school districts have historically exercised is fading, if not gone. The 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act gave the state expanded authority over school curriculum and the responsibility to develop assessments to measure student and school performance. The federal government has also taken a more authoritative role. This paper focuses on federal, state, and local players in education policy; understanding accountability (education reform and the birth of Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, or MCAS; assessing MCAS; accountability at the national level; and local accountability); the choice movement (school choice, charter schools, and funding for school choice and charter schools); equity and school funding; serving special populations (special education, English language learners, and bilingual education); excellence in the classroom; school building construction and quality; and the future of education in Greater Boston. (SM)

In Nepal, Girls' and Women's Education Initiative and the Girls' and Women's Education Policy Research Activity (GWE-PRA) investigated the impact of women's integrated literacy programs in the country's development by examining measures of socio-economic status, as well as indicators of women's social and economic development, including" (1) literacy and education; (2) children's education; (3) family and reproductive health; (4) participation in income-earning activities; (5) community participation; and (6) political participation. This research presents cross-sectional comparative analyses of these indicators in the baseline year (or Year 1) and measures changes in the indicators over a period of three years. Two integrated literacy programs were examined: (1) Basic and Primary Education Project (BPEP); and (2) the Health Education and Adult Literacy (HEAL) Program. Research design used quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected annually for three years from an experimental and a control group chosen from the Terai region. Survey data were collected from more than 1,000 women entering one of the two integrated literacy programs. The same women were followed for 3 years through an annual survey. Research sought to determine the extent to which persistence in literacy classes differed by program, previous literacy classes, age, language spoken at home, socio-economic status, and district. Findings revealed that women in the HEAL program had significantly higher levels of literacy class participation than women in BPEP. Age also appeared to be a factor affecting persistence in the program. Experimental group women had a significantly higher mean socio-economic status (SES) composite score than women in the control group. Three policy implication factors are identified and discussed. Additional information and data are appended. (Contains 103 notes, 28 tables, 54 figures, and 100 references.) (BT)

This paper is a report on the estimated effects on students and families of the offer of a voucher (the "intention-to-treat" effect) and the effects of switching from a public to a private school (the "treatment-on-the-treated" effect). Specifically, the report estimates the impact of voucher programs on student test scores, parental satisfaction with their childrens school, and parental reports of the characteristics of the school their children attended. Data for the report were gathered from test scores and parent surveys in schools with voucher programs in Washington, D.C.; New York City; and Dayton, Ohio. Following are three major findings of the study: (1) In the three cases taken together, effects of school vouchers on average test performance were found only for African-American students, whose scores were higher than scores of African-American students in public school; (2) Families that used vouchers to attend private schools were much more satisfied with their schooling than were families who remained in public schools; and (3) The educational environment of private schools was more conducive to learning than was that of public schools. (Contains 11 tables in the body, 7 tables in 2 appendices, and 39 endnotes, some with references.) (WFA)

This paper describes education reforms over the past 25 years, considering the consequences of earlier state-level standards. Most states introduced stricter, state-level standards for high school graduation in response to highly publicized concerns about student effort and public school quality. The key first wave of reforms consisted of a test-based performance standard, minimum competency testing (MCT), and a process standard, course graduation requirements (CGR) that mandated the amount of academic credits necessary in core academic areas. This paper describes these reforms and their implications for student outcomes, presenting new evidence on how they influenced such outcomes as educational attainment, labor market experiences, and high school curricula. Overall, the first wave of student-level standards have had positive and negative effects. For example, they led to reductions in educational attainments, particularly among black students. MCT led to reductions in curricular efforts. Higher CGR had pejorative effects on amounts of time spent doing homework and reading for pleasure. The standards also increased subsequent employment possibilities, and higher CGR were partly responsible for substantial academic upgrading of high school curricula. The paper recommends that ongoing public discussions about the desirability of centralized standards address how to value these reforms. (Contains 10 tables and 48 references.) (SM)

This study asserts that central examinations need not necessarily be those administered by the government; they can be examinations centralized at some administrative level, but in any case, they are external to the school. This study also assessed the impact of central examinations on the functioning of the education system and students academic performance using data from the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (renamed Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) (TIMSS; 1994-1995) and the TIMSS-Repeat (1998-1999). Data on nationally representative samples of middle-school students are available from 39 countries for the TIMSS and 38 for the TIMSS-Repeat, with 23 countries participating in both studies. In all, about 450,000 students were represented. The international evidence of both TIMSS studies confirms that central examinations are a powerful accountability device. Student performance in mathematics and science is substantially higher in school systems with central examinations than those without central examinations, and this is true for students from all performance quartiles and family backgrounds. Parents, administrator, schools, teachers, and students all appear to respond favorably to the changed incentive environment created by centralexams by behaving more favorably to students educational achievement. Parental involvement grows more informed and effective, and opportunistic behavior of schools and teachers is curbed. An appendix discusses construction of the TIMSS Repeat database. (Contains 4 figures, 9 tables, and 32 references.) (SLD)

The latest Elementary and Secondary Education Act reauthorization, the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, includes new standards, testing, and sanctions provisions designed to bring better performance and new accountability for that performance to local schools. The accountability ingredients in the new law were mostly not new to the 2001 debate but were combined in a fresh way. President Bush and members of Congress achieved a legislative victory by hewing to the common ground it was not clear both parties still shared. To do so, some issues of accountability--notably, a strong role for national standards and testing on the one side, and market-based choice programs on the other--were avoided. Accountability is more defined than it has ever been in federal law (perhaps in some areas even unrealistically specific). Nonetheless, the meaning of the act will be defined in practice in the states and in the regulations promulgated by the Department of Education in the months to come. It is ultimately in the implementation process that a route will be chosen toward accountability, or toward avoidance. (Author/SM)

Using the international database of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), this study estimated the effect of class size on student performance in 18 countries, combining school fixed effects and instrumental variables to identify random class-size variation between 2 adjacent grades within individual schools. Conventional estimates of class-size effects are shown to be severely biased by the nonrandom placement of students between and within schools. Smaller classes exhibit beneficial effects only in countries with relatively low teacher salaries. While sizeable beneficial effects of smaller classes were found in Greece and Iceland, the possibility of even small effects is rejected for Japan and Singapore. In 121 countries, the findings rule out large class-size effects. An appendix discusses the sample of countries. (Contains 4 figures, 19 tables, and 23 references.) (SLD)

In an era of devolution in much social policy, many initiatives seek to improve child, youth, and family well-being through locally-governed, data-driven partnerships. These partnerships are not limited to savvy technical reform of policies or programs. They target a change in political will, policy agendas, and policy implementation arrangements, all driven by broad and sustained local movements on behalf of children. Part of a larger project on how community problem solving is evolving worldwide, this paper critically examines what such locally-based efforts actually do, noting the key strategic challenges they confront. It emphasizes the distinct dimensions of political work implied in an era of partnership-driven problem solving, explores the roles of coalition building in local politics, and analyzes the special challenges that partnerships face when they are, at once, interest-driven coalitions that ensure political support and operational alliances through which players seek to jointly produce the better outcomes they seek. Special attention is given to the roles of intermediary players that help other players navigate these challenges and to the multiple demands made of grassroots and elite stakeholders. (Contains 80 references.) (Author/SM)

This report reviews the structure and functions of the Central Office of Cambridge Public Schools, Massachusetts. During the 1990s, the Cambridge school system and other Massachusetts school districts faced intense pressure to raise student achievement in the face of redefined public expectations for public schools. This change in expectations is the result of four factors: accelerating developments in the economy, equity, international comparisons, and research and theory. The report focuses on "Increasing Student Achievement through Professional Development"; "A Need for Clarity: Educational Goals at Cambridge Public Schools"; "A Need for Integration: Strategies for Student Achievement": "A Need for Effective School Systems Operations"; and "Policy Recommendations" (leadership coherence, developing system-wide goals, designating a Deputy Superintendent for Instruction, defining a system-wide instructional strategy, redesigning the Instructional Division of the Cambridge Public Schools, reorganizing school system operations, fostering and supporting school leadership, and obtaining professional office facilities for the school system's Central Office). A data supplement is attached. (SM)

Using a national panel data set that links the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) with the NLSY Child data, this study examines the impact of homeownership on several child outcomes. Data analysis indicates that children of homeowners have better home environments, higher cognitive test scores, and fewer behavior problems than do children of renters. The study finds that these results hold even after controlling for a large number of economic, social, and demographic variables. Owning a home compared with renting leads to a 13 to 23 percent higher quality home environment. The independent impact of homeownership combined with its positive impact on the home environment results in the children of homeowners achieving math scores up to nine percent higher and reading scores up to seven percent higher, with reductions in children's behavior problems of up to three percent. These findings suggest that homeownership support programs should be targeted to households with young children. The measurement of the home environment questionnaire is appended. (Contains 61 references.) (SM)

This document contains nine papers from a systematic, classroom-based study of multiple intelligences (MI) theory in different adult learning contexts during which adult educators from rural and urban areas throughout the United States conducted independent inquiries into the question of how MI theory can support instruction and assessment in adult basic education (ABE), adult secondary education, and English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The following papers are included: "Will Awareness of Their Own Intelligence Profiles Help My Students Become More Independent Learners?" (Betsy Cornwell); "How Can Teacher and Student, Working Collaboratively, a. Identify the Student's Strongest Intelligences through MI-Based Assessment and Classroom Activities? [and] b. Use the Understanding of These Intelligences To Guide the Learning Process?" (Meg Costanzo); "1. What Impact Do ESOL Activities Informed by the MI Theory Have on Student Engagement and Learning Strategies? [and] 2. How Do Prior Cultural Learning and Experiences Shape Students' Reaction to and Participation in ESOL Activities Informed by the MI Theory?" (Terri D. Coustan); "What Kind of MI-Informed Instruction and Assessment Can Be Developed That Will Help Adult Learners Deal with Math Anxiety, So They May Reach Their Stated Goals?" (Bonnie Fortini); "Can MI-Informed Lessons Help the Progress and Attendance of LD (Learning Disabilities) and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) Students Preparing for a GED?" (Martha Jean); "How Will Adult Diploma Students' Awareness of Their Own Intelligences and Their Participation in Activities Informed by MI Theory Affect Their Career Decision-Making Process?" (Jean A. Mantzaris); "What Effect Does Metacognitive Awareness of Their Own Multiple Intelligences Have on the Perceptions of Effective ESOL Teaching and Learning by Students With Limited Native Language Literacy? What Happens When I Try To Integrate MI into an ESOL Class?" (Diane Paxton); "Will the Use of a Multiple Intelligences Framework Support the Goals and Practices of Popular Education in an ABE Classroom?" (Wendy Quinones); and "How Does Knowledge of Multiple Intelligence Theory Broaden a Multi-Sensory Approach to the Teaching of Writing? How Does the Application of Multiple Intelligence Theory Enhance a Multi-Sensory Approach to the Teaching of Reading?" (Lezlie Rocka). Concluding the document is a 72-item reference list. (MN)

In the late 1990s, three privately funded school voucher programs for students from low-income families were established in the Dayton, Ohio metropolitan area, New York City, and Washington, D.C. Additional programs were created in Dayton and Washington, D.C. and in 1999, the Children's Scholarship Fund, a nationwide school choice scholarship program, provided additional support to these programs. Evaluations of the programs show that in the three cities taken together, the average, overall test performance of African American students who switched from public to private schools was, after 1 year, 3.3 National Percentile Ranking (NPR) points higher than the performance of the control group remaining in the public schools, and after 2 years, the difference was 6.3 NPR points. No statistically significant effects, either positive or negative, were observed for students from other ethnic groups who switched to private schools through these programs. Results for African Americans did not vary significantly by subject matter, but results did vary somewhat by city, with the greatest gains in Washington, D.C. In that city, older students switching to private schools had trouble adapting to their school in the first year, but recovered lost ground and gained substantially by the end of the second year. Evaluation teams plan to explore why the voucher program had positive effects on African American students and no detectable effects on others. (Contains 11 tables.) (SLD)

An important feature of the Annenberg Rural Challenge (now the Rural School and Community Trust) was the insistence that all funded projects be organized around networks and clusters. These networks/clusters aimed to help overcome the isolation of rural schools and communities and to multiply possibilities for sharing resources and enlarging the work on place-based education. This report synthesizes information gathered on network and cluster formation, structure, and function over the 4 years of the Rural Challenge grant. An introduction discusses theories on networks in educational settings, the Rural Challenge's vision of rural school reform, earlier rural reform movements, and the Rural Challenge's networking strategies and goals. The 35 distinct projects of the Rural Challenge are then sorted among three types of networks/clusters: large statewide networks that serve as intermediary organizations to smaller clusters of schools and communities; specific program networks that develop and implement fairly well-defined programs in clusters of rural schools; and small clusters that are geographically contiguous, frequently within one county. The three types of networks/clusters are discussed in terms of networking tools and strategies for communicating among members; network evolution; specific missions related to place-oriented curriculum development, community economic development, revitalization of languages and cultures, educational policy reform, and social justice advocacy; their effects on school-community relationships; and implications for the future of the Rural Challenge/Rural Trust. An appendix details 29 projects/networks. (Contains 23 references.) (SV)

The Rural School and Community Trust has made place central to its educational and community-building work. Because the understanding of a place is fundamental to building sustainable communities, Rural Trust schools and communities are committed to providing their children and young people with opportunities to explore, analyze, and contribute to their places. This report explains what learning about place entails and shares practical suggestions and examples of place-based curricula from Rural Trust sites. An introduction sets these efforts in their current and historic social, economic, and political context; outlines common elements that make place-oriented work deep, engaging, and challenging for students; and discusses the design process for a place-based curriculum. Detailed examples are presented: (1) the Selborne Project, in which students focus on many aspects of the square kilometer around their school; (2) cemetery studies in South Dakota and Virginia; (3) interdisciplinary studies, such as a family heritage project in Tennessee, the study of a local stream and its water in Maine, and the Kickapoo River Institute in Wisconsin; (4) studies of the local economy, history, and natural environment in Howard, South Dakota; (5) studies of local renewable energy resources and local artists and artisans in Mendocino, California; (6) development from an oral history project to place-based projects across the curriculum in a south Texas school; and (7) local history projects in Virginia. Some principles are offered for keeping this work going. (SV)

Because financial, technical, and geographic constraints often limit the ability of health care providers to reach all children in need of care, especially in developing nations, some governments, donor agencies, and other development organizations are exploring the use of interagency collaboration to deliver health care services in schools. This paper examines the need for health and education agencies to work together to ensure that school-aged children have adequate health care. The paper identifies factors critical to the successful implementation of integrated and interagency programs, analyzes the organizational and institutional barriers to such collaborations, proposes ways to overcome such barriers, and provides a brief inventory of school-health programs undertaken in developing countries. The first part of the paper discusses the rising concern for school-aged children in developing countries regarding their health and nutrition, and the link between children's health and educational achievement. This part makes a case for interagency collaboration for school-based health programs, and examines elements of successful programs, barriers to such collaboration, and ways governments and schools can overcome the constraints. A table summarizes key strategies discussed in the section, objectives for the strategies, possible outcomes, and some implementation issues. The second part of the paper describes programs and activities targeting school-aged children, with a school-based health component, and currently in operation and involving interagency collaboration in developing nations. The following information is provided for each program: (1) project sponsor; (2) other participating organizations); (3) dates of operation; (4) interventions available; and (5) program strengths. (Contains a 39-item bibliography.) (KB)

Although there has been an explosion of information and advice about child rearing in the mass media, little attention has been given to the nature or extent of the media's impact on parents or to ways in which media could be used more effectively. Based on an analysis of books, magazines, newspapers, radio, television, film, videotapes, software, and the Internet, and interviews with over 200 key professionals in fields such as communication research, parent education, journalism, and public relations, this report identifies strengths and weaknesses in media coverage of parenting. The report first reviews historical and social forces that have produced the expanded media interest in parenting. Strengths in the media's role are then identified, including the following: (1) parenting is a staple topic in many print media; (2) parenting initiatives within electronic media are expanding; (3) parental demand for media information is substantial and increasing; and (4) media can have a significant impact. Identified weaknesses are then listed, including the following: (1) easily accessible sources of information for media on parenting are scarce and scattered; (2) media parenting advice is often confusing and conflicting; (3) parents of adolescents receive less information and support from media than parents of younger children; and (4) entertainment television has been overlooked as an influence on parenting and as a vehicle for supporting and informing parents. The report recommends that the knowledge base about parenting be strengthened by holding consensus-building conferences and that a comprehensive, integrated communications strategy be implemented to disseminate the emerging consensus about parenting in ongoing and targeted ways. Contains approximately 400 references. (KB)

The Annenberg Rural Challenge seeks to create an effective and sustainable rural school movement that actively involves families, communities, and educators in supporting good rural schools in reciprocal relationships with their communities and local environments. Twenty-six projects, involving hundreds of schools and communities, have been funded. This report focuses on observed "community-school exchange" at Rural Challenge sites while providing insight into the underlying goal of community-school integration through a "pedagogy of place." The following conclusions are drawn: schools most often initiate the exchange; there are mutually beneficial interactions between community and schools; younger and older people become collective resources to local communities; negative (school-community) histories create challenges to exchange; learning to interact is an educational process; diversity can be an asset; competing cultural views need greater recognition; and standards and tests need careful consideration. Appendixes include the views of the Annenberg Rural Challenge leadership; an evaluator's thoughts and observations on the Rural Challenge; background and context of the research and evaluation project; defining community and school exchange; and survey responses from students, teachers, and parents at seven evaluation sites. (SAS)

This report is concerned with information, technology, education, and literacy and with the dynamics that interrelate them. The report reviews and clarifies how the dynamics operate, examines many of their consequences, and suggests some kinds of actions that may prove necessary for both individuals and organizations to survive successfully in the emerging information environment. The main themes of the report include the following: The range of uses of personal computers and related systems will continue to expand for at least several decades, and the importance of their roles in essentially all information activities will continue to increase. Both people and organizations will continue to encounter difficult new problems in managing information resources in the face of potential overloads of many kinds; both computer skills and knowledge of subject underlying many kinds of applications will be required. Instead of developing long-range plans based on detailed forecasts of the future information environment, short-range (2-4 years), incremental, action-oriented plans may be more appropriate if guided by a long-range vision. Possibilities exist for extensive and better use of computers as aids in efforts to lighten some of the major work overloads faced. Computer skills are well on the way to becoming a key component of literacy in the future. Seven figures and tables provide further information throughout the text. Includes a list of acronyms. (Author/AEF)