Do students know what they can or cannot do with intellectual property on the internet? Many computer-savvy kids as well as educators, administrators and parents are unclear about what is and what is not ethical when dealing with the World Wide Web. The ethical issues that accompany educational technology have become more apparent as more…

This article discusses the rise of cut-and-paste plagiarism in schools. Students are constantly searching for essays online, however, they did not know that their teachers are using the same technology to catch them cheating. Plagiarism is happening on campuses nationwide. Yet, with veritable libraries at their fingertips, students see nothing…

It is commonly believed that highly subjective humans ultimately perform all testing and grading efforts and that all testing and grading is completely subjective. However, Quentin Durham argues that there is no such thing as objective testing or grading. With wit and clarity, "The Realities of Classroom Testing and Grading" suggests that all…

Students are under pressure from teachers, parents, and college admissions counselors to maintain high grade point averages, score well on high-stakes tests, participate in a variety of extracurricular activities, and gain admission to top colleges. In fact, surveys have found that most students identify academic pressure as the main reason for…

The day is past when educators can legitimately claim ignorance of digital copyright and fair use laws. The ed tech community has addressed digital copyright and fair use a lot in recent years. There is still, however, the ongoing challenge of keeping up with ever-changing statutes as technology itself matures, not to mention the necessity of…

Asal and Harwood explore how today's information technology is changing how teachers educate and are educated. Focusing on the United States, with useful insights from the classroom digital revolution in a few other places (the United Kingdom, Australia, and India), the authors investigate the impact of today's technologies on education--how they…

Accountability and performance incentive plans in education are compromised by goal distortion, gaming, and corruption. Education policy makers who design such plans have paid insufficient attention to similar experiences in other fields. This paper describes institutions in health care, job training and welfare administration, and in the private…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) More Than "Making Nice": Getting Teachers to (Truly) Collaborate (Laura Pappano); (2) "Doing the Critical Things First": An Aligned Approach to PreK and Early Elementary Math;…

To address a public relations problem faced by a large urban public school district in Texas, we conducted action research that resulted in an audited self-monitoring system for high-stakes testing environments. The system monitors violations of testing protocols while identifying and disseminating best practices to improve the education of…

Teen use of the internet at school has grown 45% since 2000. The vast majority of teens and their parents believe that the use of the internet helps students in the classroom and in their studies, but some teens believe too many of their peers use the internet to cheat. The internet is an important element in the overall educational experience of…

This research provides lengthy proof of a principle of social science known as Campbell's law: "The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor." Applying…

This research provides lengthy proof of a principle of social science known as Campbell's law: "The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it is intended to monitor." Applying…

This study examines the K-12 mathematical experiences of U.S. university students via an expressive writing assignment: a mathematical autobiography essay. The essays of 67 college students, out of over 300 enrolled in 16 sections of a college liberal arts mathematics course, were analyzed using constant-comparative methods. Two categories of…

Online learning is growing rapidly across the United States within all levels of education, as more and more students and educators become familiar with the benefits of learning unconstrained by time and place. Across most states and all grade levels, students are finding increased opportunity, flexibility, and convenience through online learning.…