Policies often directly impact teachers' lives and practice, requiring them to engage in spite of extremely busy schedules. This article offers encouragement to music educators wanting to be active--and become activists--in education policy. Before becoming active, one must understand how music education policies come to be. I argue that arts…

Technological change has proven one of the few constants of the early 21st century, providing social studies educators with the challenge and opportunity of preparing digital citizens in a global setting. This requires rethinking the type of social studies learning necessary in the 21st century. As the National Academies concluded in the…

The nature of literacy is an issue of global debate. When the National Literacy Strategy [NLS] was introduced into UK schools it was arguably the most ambitious educational reform programme in the world, and the controversy necessarily intensified. How can the impact of such reforms be assessed? In its ten year history the NLS affected every…

National Board Certification is administered by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards, to advance the quality of teaching and learning by developing professional standards for accomplished teaching, creating a voluntary system to certify teachers who meet those standards and integrating certified teachers into educational reform…

The educational reform movement since the 1990s has led the secondary earth science curriculum in Taiwan into a stage of reshaping. The present study investigated secondary earth science teachers' perceptions on the Goals of Earth Science Education (GESE). The GESE should express the statements of philosophy and purpose toward which educators…

This article is about an investigation of six middle school science teachers' beliefs and instructional practice about the coherence of the science they teach as articulated by National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996). Many well intentioned reform efforts focus on improving content knowledge of teachers, but many classroom teachers…

This article briefly reviews the central ideas associated with the notion of systemic reform and indicates how these ideas are manifested in the draft of the National Science Education Standards. The draft is critiqued and what the critique suggests about the viability and utility of the notion of systemic reform is considered. The discussion…

This theme issue of "The Docket" is devoted to national standards and their effects on education reform. National standards may provide the first real opportunity for schools to address the issues of student assessment and achievement. As the touchstone for educational equity, they may be the first real opportunity for teachers to…

This book focuses on information literacy and facilitating change in schools. Chapters include:" What Is Information Literacy?"; "Why Information Literacy?"; "How Information Literacy Relates to National Curriculum Standards"; "Essential Components of Information Literacy"; "The Necessary Reforms and…

This book is designed to assist teachers at the 9-12 grade levels in addressing the goals of the National Science Education Standards (NSES) in their own classrooms concerning the teaching and learning of chemistry. The Standards expect students to learn science in an active manner and emphasizes methods of inquiry and deductive reasoning based on…

The educational system in Mexico has undergone important changes in recent decades. One of the most important took place in 1993, when the compulsory character of secondary school (ages 12-15) was established. National In-service Courses (NICs) were established as a way to bring curricular changes proposed in the reform near to the teachers. The…

Maintains that there soon will be a rush to review recent state and national efforts to establish curriculum standards. Describes three nightmares and three possibilities for substantive change. Discusses the role of the National Council for the Social Studies in the standards development movement. (CFR)

Nine years after the National Science Education Standards' release, just how well do science teachers in grades 5 to 8 actually use them to plan content, define improved teaching, and assess real learning? Find out the answers to these key questions in this groundbreaking collection of 15 essays by teachers, researchers, and professors whose…

Asserts that the thematic approach used in the National Council for the Social Studies national standards marks a fresh era of thought in social studies instruction. Maintains that the strands can serve as a framework for social studies curriculum development and effective classroom learning experiences. (CFR)

Maintains that the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) curriculum standards provide an opportunity to integrate technology into a thematic curriculum approach. Includes an annotated bibliography of 19 recommended items of educational technology categorized by 10 of the NCSS curriculum themes. (CFR)