"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Congress Begins Budget Debate: House and Senate Budget Plans Accommodate President Obama's Education Proposals; (2)…

In this paper, we report on a comparison of the treatment of addition and subtraction of fractions in primary mathematics textbooks used in Cyprus, Ireland, and Taiwan. To this end, we use a framework specifically developed to investigate the learning opportunities afforded by the textbooks, particularly with respect to the…

This paper considers what multilevel modelling approaches to analysing large scale cross-national surveys of education quality can tell us about the capabilities that support primary school children in learning to read. The impact of pupil background characteristics on achievement in reading towards the end of the primary cycle in sub-Saharan…

This study examined the effects of Sharing the Environment (STE), a situated professional development pilot program that uses an inquiry-based approach to teaching Environmental Education (EE) to elementary students in the US and Trinidad. Inquiry is difficult to incorporate in both cultures because proficient performance on national tests is a…

In 1999, Liping Ma published her book "Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in the United States and China," which probed the kinds of knowledge that elementary school teachers need to convey mathematical concepts and procedures effectively to their students. Later that year,…

This article responds to Shelby Gilbert's "A Study of Ogbu and Simon's Thesis." The author begins by saying that he thinks that this study of examining Ogbu and Simons' thesis (to investigate school performance of Black immigrant and non-immigrant students in the United States) makes a thought-provoking contribution to overall discussions…

The project "The educational value of various aspects of multilingualism in the classroom of the Basque Country and of Friesland" concerns a comparative study of the languages in the schools in the Basque Autonomous Community and in the Province of Friesland. It is part of the agreement between the general administration of the Basque…

In the early 1900s, the Qing dynasty implemented a series of institutional reforms to shore up its power. The most important were a nationwide school system and the abolition of the centuries-old civil examinations. "A School in Every Village" recounts how villagers and local state officials in Haicheng County enacted orders to establish…

The impact of persistent aggression on youths' social and psychological well being is well documented. What is less well understood is the shaping effect of cultural differences on how such conflict is experienced and responded to. In this study, we asked youth to write a story about a conflict they experienced and describe their associated…

This study investigated the differences and similarities in the impact of school leadership on student mathematics achievement in different global regions using TIMSS international data. Three-level unconditional and conditional hierarchical models were fitted to the data in each country. The findings showed that the variables of teacher…

This article reports on a study conducted in Australia and France that inquired into the meaning and the nature of children's experiences of being in swimming clubs with a focus on the positive aspects of membership that keep them in their clubs. Three-month long case studies were conducted in a club in Australia and in a club in France, employing…

The present study targeted the online reading strategies of upper-elementary and middle school students with and without learning disabilities in the U.S. and in Taiwan. Several aspects of the comprehension process were studied, including: (1) Internet navigation strategies and behaviours, (2) sensitivity to the organisational structure of…

This multinational research study was carried out between 2004 and 2006 in four teacher education institutions in Cyprus, England, Switzerland, and Germany. With the help of a written questionnaire, the confidence and perceived competence of preservice primary teachers (N = 690) to deliver biodiversity education in school were investigated. Data…

PIRLS is an international assessment of reading comprehension at the fourth grade that has been conducted every five years since 2001. In 2011, nationally representative samples of students in 49 countries participated in PIRLS and prePIRLS. Forty-five countries assessed fourth grade students, and some countries participated in one or more of the…

This dissertation presents two studies designed to examine the topic of fraction division in selected Chinese and US curricula. By comparing the structure and content of the Chinese and "Everyday Mathematics" textbooks and teacher's guides, Study 1 revealed many different features presented in the selected curricula. Major differences…