When 16 finalists come to Washington next week to make their final pitches in the $4 billion Race to the Top competition, most can expect to go home empty-handed. U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, in announcing the finalists last week, said that no more than $2 billion will be divided among "very few winners" when the awards are…

In 1997, the Buckeye State embraced a new approach to public-education delivery, launching a pilot program of community (charter) schools. Since then, the state's community schools sector has grown tremendously. During the 2013-14 school year, 390 schools served approximately 124,000 students--seven percent of students statewide. Despite its…

For the forty-fourth time, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented online and onsite during the annual AECT Convention. Volume 1 contains papers dealing primarily with research and development topics. Papers dealing with…

As debate continues around the development and adoption of common standards in English and mathematics, several states are independently wrestling with rewrites of standards in a content area largely absent from that national discussion--social studies--and encountering their own shares of controversy. Flash points in the social studies debates…

This final audit report covers the results of the review of five State educational agencies' monitoring plans and awarding processes for American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 and regular School Improvement Grants funds that the State educational agencies awarded for fiscal year 2009 (for use during school year 2010-2011). The objectives…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the role of school district expenditures in predicting student achievement in Ohio for the school year 2009-2010. Building upon the concept of the "65 percent solution," the research questions that guided this study were: (1) What percentage of Ohio's school district's operating budgets…

Crossing the threshold from high school to college-level writing expectations constitutes a challenge for many students since secondary and post-secondary composition instructors often work under different constraints and are guided by different curricular philosophies. Dual enrollment classrooms provide a space where these differences can be…

"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) Senate Help Committee Passes Legislation to Rewrite No Child Left Behind; (2) Remediation Exasperation: New York…

The dream--combining two nationally recognized Cincinnati Public Schools, the current School for Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA) for grades 4-12 and Schiel Primary School for Arts Enrichment for grades K-3, into the new K-12 School for Creative and Performing Arts--has come true. This article discusses how Cincinnati made it to reality.…

This study uses articulation theory to frame how social actors and institutions in an urban community in Columbus, Ohio, form linkages and understandings about computer and information literacies. Using interviews with 33 key educators (e.g., principals, computer literacy teachers, library media specialists, district integration specialists),…

Ohio has made tremendous strides in education reform over the past half year. Yet even regarding these accomplishments, the work is not done. Virtually all of the state's recent education policy changes come with implementation challenges and sustainability concerns. This paper presents a list that offers praise for the positive changes Ohio has…

This study explored the strategic use of negotiating as a tool for creating and enhancing democratic communities. A total of 44 principals from four elementary schools, two middle schools, and one high school, provided data for this study. Results found that within schools, principals used certain skills to negotiate bureaucratic roles, and…

With conversations about the best ways to evaluate teacher performance proliferating across the nation, preservice preparation could be the next stop on the teacher-quality continuum to receive a similarly high level of scrutiny. New models for preparing teachers, such as the yearlong apprenticeship or "residency" model, have received…

Most content knowledge (CK) courses in physical education teacher education focus mostly on knowledge of rules, etiquette, techniques, tactics, and performance of the activity. Much less emphasis is placed on error detection and instructional tasks. This article therefore presents teaching and assessment strategies that facilitate the acquisition…

This brief provides an overview of the Instructional Improvement System (IIS) models for State education agencies in Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island, along IIS goals in the following areas: (1) Standards and Curriculum; (2) Instructional Practices; (3) Assessment and Growth; (4) Learner Profiles; (5) Data…