The National Visual Arts Standards (NVAS) present ways for students in the United States to create, present, respond, and connect to the world of art and artmaking. This article focuses on the practices of one visual arts educator, Educator A, who taught in a state-sponsored specialist music high school, guided by the following question: "How…

The present qualitative study used socio-cultural theory (Wertsch, 1998), pedagogical content knowledge (Shulman, 1987), and reflective practice (Schon, 1983) to examine how social studies teachers define and develop inquiry questions. Existing literature reflects a long tradition of equating inquiry with high quality social studies instruction…

We apply a utilization-focused evaluation [UFE] approach to an evaluation of Virginia's latest comprehensive accountability policy--the Standards of Accreditation (SOA). Our study focuses on the implementation experiences of district and high school level administrators in four urban districts. This study is significant in two important ways.…

The purpose of this study was to investigate students' conceptions of and feelings about land use. Specifically: (1) What are students' conceptions of and feelings about land use? And (2) in what ways might students' conceptions and feelings vary by community setting and grade level? This study was qualitative and descriptive in nature and…

This article considers in a wide perspective the crisis in the assessment of examinations in A-level English Literature and current attempts to address the problems. Examining the implications of a survey of recent reports initiated by the regulator, it argues that trying to ensure reliability merely through technological advances and changes in…

In 2012, the Maine legislature passed a bill requiring public school districts to implement proficiency-based high school diploma requirements. Amendments were passed in subsequent years, and several additional bills related to this policy were introduced in the most recent 128th Legislative Session in early 2018. These bills were considered by…

The ways in which examination standards are conceptualised and operationalised differently across nations has not been given sufficient attention. The international literature on standard-setting has been dominated by the psychometrics tradition. Broader conceptualisations of examination standards have been discussed in the literature in England,…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in ELA/literacy call for increased rigor, close reading of complex texts, evidence-based argumentation in academic English, and collaborative conversations. For English language learners (ELLs), achieving the standards requires that they double their efforts to simultaneously learn both academic English and…

The United States has undergone a revamping of education standards in an effort to systematize rigorous learning standards across the country and prepare students to be college- and career-ready. In addition, new accountability requirements have been put in place to determine the effectiveness of the school leader. Certainly, educational reforms…

Chemistry core ideas play an important role in students' chemistry learning. On the basis of the representations of chemistry core ideas about "substances" and "processes" in the Chinese Chemistry Curriculum Standards (CCCS) and the U.S. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), we conduct a critical comparison of chemistry…

In January 2014, the GED Testing Service significantly redesigned the GED test to incorporate the Common Core State Standards and the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education. The purpose of this study was to examine the significant changes made to the test in 2014, examine the impact of the changes on Washingtonians, and make…

"Credit recovery programs" allow high school students to recover course credit, through in-school, online, or mixed modes, for classes they previously failed. The WWC reviewed the research on these programs and their impacts on middle school, junior high school, or high school students at risk of dropping out or who have already dropped…

In September 2015, Commissioner Candice McQueen and senior leadership at the Tennessee Department of Education laid out goals and priorities for Tennessee's students and a plan to reach these goals. This strategic plan, Tennessee Succeeds, aimed to give a clear, overarching vision for the key strategies the department would focus on in order to…

In 2016, analysts at Marzano Research identified a focused set of content for each K-12 grade level in English language arts (ELA), mathematics, and science called The Critical Concepts (Simms, 2016). Using a set of source standards that included the Common Core State Standards (CCSS; National Governors Association for Best Practices & Council…

This data book profiles noteworthy academic events, trends and outcomes at the state and complex-area level. It includes tables, figures and narrative sections related to demographic, financial and educational performance. A list of resources is provided. [For "Hawaii Department of Education Data Book, 2019. 30th Annual Report," see…