Since 1960 Denver has operated a testing program designed to assure that high school graduates possess minimum competence in four basic areas--arithmetic, spelling, grammar, and reading comprehension. (Author/IRT)

The key elements to this plan for special education students are keeping a check on student achievement throughout all the grades, communicating with parents about student deficiencies, and requiring competency tests of all high school students. (Author/IRT)

All students except the mentally handicapped are required to show by examination that they are able to read, speak, and understand ordinary English; write a simple, correct, intelligible paragraph; and perform with reasonable mastery fundamental mathematical processes. (Author)

Students graduating from Westside High must meet hour and competency test requirements. The seven competency tests are in reading, writing, mathematics, democratic process, problem-solving, oral communication, and consumerism. (IRT)

A national proficiency testing program would weaken local decision-making capacity, resegregate the schools, and further the negative effects of nonpromotion of students. Such a program would also have several negative effects on the curriculum. (Author/IRT)

Explores such myths as competency-based graduation requirements are a repudiation of humanistic concerns, the public won't accept subjective measures of competence, and requiring students to pass proficiency tests before graduation will increase public support for education. Offers suggestions for developing new kinds of graduation requirements.…

The procedural due process principles of Goss v. Lopez do not apply in cases of "academic" dismissal rather than disciplinary dismissal. The difficulty in making this distinction, particularly at the elementary and secondary levels, undoubtedly will be the cause of much future litigation. (Author/IRT)

Describes the Corrections and Alternative Education Program that includes extensive field experience. (IRT)

Describes the Organization, Research, Presentation, Accountability (ORPA) teaching approach that involves students in all phases of learning. Results of comparisons of student achievement in classes using the ORPA method and the lecture method are included. (IRT)

A system of diversity and choice within the public schools might work, not simply to stem the flight from the public schools, but actually to begin to reverse that trend. (Author/IRT)

After outlining ways in which the federal government has discriminated against rural education, the author goes on to sketch ways in which the government can redress this history inequity and ensure that federal education agencies are more responsive to their rural constituents. (Author/IRT)

Describes a program, involving individualized instruction and classroom management techniques, that has increased the reading skills of one district's students. (IRT)

The author presents several commonly agreed upon trends and assesses their likely impact and possible implications for education. (IRT)