State Issues Report, 1997-98.

Overview & Synopsis

This report profiles legislative action affecting pre-K-12 education in the 50 states during the 1997-98 school year. The information was collected from Lexis-Nexis, legislative staff, state newsletters, school board/teacher associations, and various media. The resulting report, compiled by the Education Commission of the States Information Clearinghouse, has not been analyzed and was rapidly processed to be released in printed form at the earliest possible date. The material is separated by topic and is arranged alphabetically. Each topic features the states affected by the legislation, the status of the legislation, and a summary of the legislation's content. The many topics addressed here include accountability, accreditation, administrators/principals, adult education, assessment/testing, at-risk youth, attendance, bilingual education, business/industry/education, charter schools, child abuse/protection, choice, collective bargaining, community education, community involvement, community service/volunteerism, compensatory education, correctional institution education, counseling guidance, curriculum, deregulation/waivers, discipline, early-childhood education, elementary education, enrollment, equity, extended day, finance, gifted and talented, governance, health, immigrants, incentives/sanctions, instruction methods, interagency collaborations, kindergarten, libraries, literacy, magnet schools, middle schools, neuroscience, nonpublic schools, official English, parent/family, partnerships, postsecondary, privatization, religion, safety/crime/violence, scheduling, school boards, school districts, secondary schools, sexual harassment, site based management, special education, teacher evaluation, technology, textbooks, urban schools, vocational education, and vouchers/tax credits. (RJM)