Self-assessment is crucial to visual art learning. Firstly, because the art experience is personalized, any external assessment is insufficient and deficient; secondly, because an individual's creativity is inexhaustible, any acquired criteria of assessment are too static for an open-ended process that is multidirectional and with infinite…

This paper provides a brief literature review related to art teacher candidate dispositions and offers an assessment model that engages candidates in collecting and analyzing evidence of their professional dispositions. Engaging teacher candidates in "assessment as learning" simultaneously serves as one model for assessing studio habits…

The teaching performance expectations and assignments that preservice art teachers currently address in field experiences and in their coursework are designed to help them meet the expectations of being a quality art educator in the 21st century. These assignments may be very different from the assignments that art educators had in their…

High school and college students are inundated by indicators and rankings supposedly designed to help them decide where to go to college and what to study once they arrive. In "Metrics That Matter," coauthors Zachary Bleemer, Mukul Kumar, Aashish Mehta, Chris Muellerleile, and Christopher Newfield take a critical look at these metrics…

When first studying children's artistic development, many preservice teachers feel amazed as they learn students' artistic capabilities and see how students can thrive under the guidance of effective art educators. Teaching a standards-based art curriculum skillfully and with care requires art educators to be familiar with developmentally…

Captivating Classrooms explores the specific role that student engagement plays in education, it argues that there are myriad factors that undergird meaningful student learning and participation--such as motivation, exciting teaching strategies, reinventing literacy instruction, and authentic assessment. This book is an extremely valuable handbook…

Grade inflation has been a consistently ignored problem in the public schools and universities for over fifty years. Grades keep getting higher and higher for a multitude of reasons. Students expect high grades. Parents demand high grades of their children and teachers. Some administrators implicitly or explicitly require that their teachers give…

In spite of soaring tuition costs, more and more students go to college every year. A bachelor's degree is now required for entry into a growing number of professions. And some parents begin planning for the expense of sending their kids to college when they're born. Almost everyone strives to go, but almost no one asks the fundamental question…

Every child is unique and learns in different ways. Some children are identified as needing special education services to support his or her learning at school. Parents can play a major role in shaping the services a child receives. This guidebook has been written for parents, guardians, and surrogate parents of a child (ages 3 to 21 or…

What can a college admissions officer safely predict about the future of a 17-year-old? Are the best and the brightest students the ones who can check off the most correct boxes on a multiple-choice exam? Or are there better ways of measuring ability and promise? In this penetrating and revealing look at high-stakes standardized admissions tests,…

Parents have enough to think about as they prepare for their son or daughter's college education without having to worry about drinking or how to prepare him/her for what some think is a "collegiate rite of passage." This guide provides basic information about alcohol, drinking, and college. It includes simple suggestions intended to help prepare…

"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) "The High Cost of Low Educational Performance": New OECD Report Finds that 25 Point Increase in PISA Scores…

Over 20 years ago, the first university rankings entered public attention in the United States. Since then, there have been numerous other efforts to rank or rate universities or university departments. University report cards have become both popular with the public and increasingly important for academic institutions. A detailed examination of…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) documents dimensions of quality in undergraduate education and provides information and assistance to colleges, universities, and other organizations to improve student learning. Its primary activity is annually surveying college students to assess the extent to which they engage in educational…

"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) The Value of Enhanced Reading Opportunities in High Schools: Report Finds Supplemental Reading Programs Can Improve…