Bøger i Brookings Dialogues on Public serien

"A key issue in the debate about reforming the U.S. health care system is how to finance and organize the delivery of long-term care. This volume offers perspectives on several important facets of this problem, including the regulation of private long-term care insurance, catastrophic out-of-pocket costs, and the use of long-term care and acute care services by the chronically disabled elderly.In addition to the editors, the contributors are Lisa Alecxih, David Kennell, and John Corea, Lewin-VHI; Brian Burwell and William Crown, SysteMetrics; Terry Coughlin, Korbin Liu, and Sharon Long, Urban Institute; Judith Kasper, Johns Hopkins University; Kenneth Manton and P.J. Eric Stallard, Duke University; Jennifer Schore, Mathematica Policy Research; Catherine Sullivan, Brookings; and Bruce Vladeck, Health Care Financing Administration.Dialogues on Public Policy "

"What is the outlook for educational reform in the United States? One of the most striking proposals has been to establish a system of national standards, which has raised many complex questions: Is it possible for the United States, with its history of extreme decentralization, to establish and enforce national standards for what students should know? Who will create these standards? What would be the role of the federal, state, and local governments?While the idea of national standards has been widely supported, many respected educators doubt their value from fear that such standards will institutionalize the lowest common denominator. Others cite the poor performance of U.S. students on international tests and insist that the U.S. will suffer because of this poor performance. The debate becomes even more intense when the question of assessment is posed. Is it possible to develop a national examination system tied to new standards? Should such tests be used to influence entry to colleges and jobs? Would the motivation of students to learn be increased if they knew that their performance would be reviewed by colleges and employers? Is it fair to set standards for students without setting standards for schools?To address these and other questions, this book, the result of a Brookings conference, brings together representatives of various viewpoints on the utility and equity of increasing the use of tests for students, teachers, and schools.The contributors are Chester Finn, Jr., the Edison Project; Daniel Koretz, RAND; Andrew Porter, Wisconsin Center for Education Research; Lauren Resnick, University of Pittsburgh; Roy Romer, Governor of Colorado; Albert Shanker, American Federation of Teachers; Theodore R. Sizer, Brown University; Marshall C. Smith, U.S. Department of Education; and Donald M. Stewart, The College Board.Brookings Dialogues on Public Policy"

"This volume is the record of a conference held in March 1989 that centered on a departure from the basic U.S. policy toward the long-standing problem of third world debt.Secretary of the Treasury Nicholas Brady took the occasion of the conference to announce that officially sponsored reduction of debt principal and debt interest should henceforth be an integral part of debt strategy. Promptly labeled the Brady Plan, the secretary's statement has since been the subject of extensive debate at home and abroad. Now that it has been given official sanction, debt service reduction has become an inescapable feature of the ongoing effort to manage and resolve the debt problem.This volume considers the implications of introducing debt and debt service reduction into the preexisting menu of policies and, more specifically, to suggest the conditions under which it can be expected to hasten the removal of the third world debt problem from the international economic agenda."

With job prospects clouded for even the well-educated, those who leave school with no training beyond high school now face great challenges in making the transition from school to work. Emerging research and experience in other countries have led many to believe that the workplace can play a much larger educational role than it now does. The School-to-Work Opportunity Act of 1994, for example, requires programs funded under the act to include educationally guided work placements as part of the educational strategy. Although there is a growing consensus that employers have much to contribute, significant barriers stand in the way of increasing work-based education.This volume, the result of a Brookings conference on employer participation in education, focuses on such questions as: How can an adequate number of employers be recruited? How can the quality of placements be guaranteed? How can discrimination and inequities in providing access to good placements be avoided? What must educators do to work effectively with employers to develop high quality on-the-job educational experiences? And what policies can encourage participation and monitor and improve the education that takes place on the job?The book includes the perspectives of employers, educators, and policymakers and draws lessons from experience with employer involvement in Europe. It concludes with suggestions for future research and policy designed to increase the quality and quantity of work-based education.Chapters were written by editor Thomas Bailey, as well as Paul Osterman, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; David Stern, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development; and Margaret Vickers, Technical Education Research Centers. Comments are included by George Chambliss, Xavier Del Buono, Harry Featherstone, Jack Jennings, Governor John R. McKernan, Jr., Stuart Rosenfeld, Anthony Sarmiento, Bernd Sohngen, Marc S. Tucker, Cheryl Fields Tyler, Peter van den Dool, Joan Wills, and Robert Yurasits. Brookings Dialogues on Public Policy