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For the first time, a report focuses specifically on middle childhoodâ€"a discrete, pivotal period of development. In this review of research, experts examine the physical health and cognitive development of 6- to 12-year-old children as well as their surroundings: school and home environment, ecocultural setting, and family and peer relationships.

The document contains the final report of a project to determine the factors that account for disproportionate representation of minority students in special education programs, especially programs for mentally retarded students; and to identify placement criteria for practices that do not affect minority students disproportionately. Chapter 1 looks at six potential causes of disproportionate placement of minorities in educable mentally retarded (EMR) programs: legal and administrative requirements, characteristics of students, quality of the instruction received, possible biases in the assessment process, characteristics of the home and family environment, and broader historical and cultural contexts. Chapter 2 describes characteristics of EMR students, then reviews the historical origins of special education in America with attention to the role of the standardized intelligence test for identification and placement of mentally retarded students. A third chapter is split into two sections--one on the issues surrounding the instruments that comprise a comprehensive battery for assessing a child who is unable to learn normally in the classroom, and the other on an ideal assessment process in which the comprehensive assessment would be embedded. Chapter 4 considers the components of effective education programs for EMR students and reviews three approaches to instruction (the separate class structure, the resource room, and the teacher consultant model). A final chapter lists recommendations for improvements in special education referral, assessment, and placement procedures and instructional practices. More than half the document is comprised of six background papers with the following titles and authors: "Biological and Social Factors Contributing to Mild Mental Retardation" (J. Shonkoff); "Classifying Mentally Retarded Students--A Review of Placement Practices in Special Education" (W. Bickel); "Testing in Educational Placement--Issues and Evidence" (J. Travers); "Effects of Special Education Placement on Educable Mentally Retarded Children" (K. Heller); "Some Potential Incentives of Special Education Funding Practices" (S. Magnetti); and "Patterns in Special Education Placement as Revealed by the OCR Survey" (J. Finn). (SB)

Every year roughly 100,000 fatal and injury crashes occur in the United States involving large trucks and buses. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) in the U.S. Department of Transportation works to reduce crashes, injuries, and fatalities involving large trucks and buses. FMCSA uses information that is collected on the frequency of approximately 900 different violations of safety regulations discovered during (mainly) roadside inspections to assess motor carriers' compliance with Federal Motor Carrier Safety Regulations, as well as to evaluate their compliance in comparison with their peers. Through use of this information, FMCSA's Safety Measurement System (SMS) identifies carriers to receive its available interventions in order to reduce the risk of crashes across all carriers. Improving Motor Carrier Safety Measurement examines the effectiveness of the use of the percentile ranks produced by SMS for identifying high-risk carriers, and if not, what alternatives might be preferred. In addition, this report evaluates the accuracy and sufficiency of the data used by SMS, to assess whether other approaches to identifying unsafe carriers would identify high-risk carriers more effectively, and to reflect on how members of the public use the SMS and what effect making the SMS information public has had on reducing crashes.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 fundamentally changed the nation's social welfare system, replacing a federal entitlement program for low-income families, called Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), with state-administered block grants, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. PRWORA furthered a trend started earlier in the decade under so called "waiver" programs-state experiments with different types of AFDC rules-toward devolution of design and control of social welfare programs from the federal government to the states. The legislation imposed several new, major requirements on state use of federal welfare funds but otherwise freed states to reconfigure their programs as they want. The underlying goal of the legislation is to decrease dependence on welfare and increase the self-sufficiency of poor families in the United States. In summer 1998, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) of the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) asked the Committee on National Statistics of the National Research Council to convene a Panel on Data and Methods for Measuring the Effects of Changes in Social Welfare Programs. The panel's overall charge is to study and make recommendations on the best strategies for evaluating the effects of PRWORA and other welfare reforms and to make recommendations on data needs for conducting useful evaluations. This interim report presents the panel's initial conclusions and recommendations. Given the short length of time the panel has been in existence, this report necessarily treats many issues in much less depth than they will be treated in the final report. The report has an immediate short-run goal of providing DHHS-ASPE with recommendations regarding some of its current projects, particularly those recently funded to study "welfare leavers"-former welfare recipients who have left the welfare rolls as part of the recent decline in welfare caseloads.

Reform of welfare is one of the nation's most contentious issues, with debate often driven more by politics than by facts and careful analysis. Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition identifies the key policy questions for measuring whether our changing social welfare programs are working, reviews the available studies and research, and recommends the most effective ways to answer those questions. This book discusses the development of welfare policy, including the landmark 1996 federal law that devolved most of the responsibility for welfare policies and their implementation to the states. A thorough analysis of the available research leads to the identification of gaps in what is currently known about the effects of welfare reform. Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition specifies what-and why-we need to know about the response of individual states to the federal overhaul of welfare and the effects of the many changes in the nation's welfare laws, policies, and practices. With a clear approach to a variety of issues, Evaluating Welfare Reform in an Era of Transition will be important to policy makers, welfare administrators, researchers, journalists, and advocates on all sides of the issue.

There is growing interest in using performance measurement as a means of holding federal, state, and local health agencies accountable for their use of public funds. Health Performance Measurement in the Public Sector is the second of two books for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on using and improving performance measurement in publicly funded health programs and the implications for data needs and systems. This book focuses on data and information system issues at the federal, state, and local levels. Recommendations address: Policy framework for selecting performance measures and using performance measurement. Operational principles related to data and data systems that support performance measurement. Essential investments in data systems and in training and technical assistance. Research needed to improve performance measures and performance measurement.

The first of the National Education Goals states that by the year 2000 all children in America will start school ready to learn. Pressed by demands for greater accountability and enhanced educational performance, states are developing standards and creating new criteria and approaches for assessing achievement. Calls to assess young children are also increasing. This booklet indicates how best to craft such assessments in light of young children's unique development, recent abuses of testing, and the legitimate demands for clear and useful information. Following a look at recent assessment issues and the current assessment climate, the booklet lists general principles that should guide both policies and practices for the assessment of young children; these principles address benefits, reliability and validity, appropriateness to age level and language, and parental role in assessment. The booklet then details important purposes of assessment for young children: (1) promoting children's learning and development; (2) identifying children for health and special services; (3) monitoring trends and evaluating programs and services; and (4) assessing academic achievement to hold individual students, teachers, and schools accountable. For each purpose, the definition, audience, technical requirements and age continuum are listed. Recommendations for policymakers are also presented for each purpose, and a chart outlining appropriate uses and technical accuracy of assessments change across the early childhood age continuum is included. The booklet then considers combinations of these purposes that have most often occurred in practice. Contains 33 references. (HTH)