A few weeks before the fifth anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings on April 20, 1999, Principal Frank DeAngelis reflects on how his school has changed over the past five years. Much like the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States, "Columbine" carries a chilling meaning that resonates across the…

For more than 50 years, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has been conducting comparative studies of educational achievement in a number of curriculum areas, including mathematics and science. TIMSS 2011 represents the fifth cycle of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS),…

Faculty and their work are the heart, and thus determine the health, of every college and university and have a lasting impact on the many lives they touch. Well over a million faculty members now teach about 15 million students at over 4,000 colleges and universities in this country. The continued vitality of the academic profession is therefore…

Faculty of color are severely underrepresented in American higher education; they make up just over 10 percent of full-time undergraduate professors. Many in academe are familiar with this statistic and know that progress in increasing the presence of faculty of color on U.S. campuses has been slow. They are also aware, however, that students of…

A two-week exchange lectureship at the Russian Diplomatic Academy in Moscow is described by the American exchange professor. The focus of the lectureship was the vital role which public education has played historically in shaping the United States. The lectures were designed around three main themes in American education: historic purposes…

Discusses a colloquium of Harvard University faculty, staff, alumni, and graduate students on the reports and studies published recently on the shortcomings of American education. The panelists identified questions that need to be asked, pinpointed what was missing from the reports, and responded from their particular perspective. (JOW)

The purpose of this study is to describe the level of administrator support perceived by special education teachers in South Texas. The literature on teacher retention indicates that "lack of administrative support" as an important reason for leaving the profession. This study examined the factors related to administrator support…

Descriptive data about teachers in America were analyzed in terms of the international dimension of education and the social context in which schools operate. Characteristics of teachers, such as age, gender, race, experience, education, and the conditions under which they work, provided a profile of the "typical" teacher. The model…

Highlights descriptions of actual school and classroom settings in Japan for comparison with U.S. schools as well as exploring teachers' work situation and their roles and responsibilities. Summarizes classroom life from the students' perspectives to provide a backdrop for understanding the teaching context in Japan. (GLR)

The article explores the complexities of educational scale-making. "Educational scales" are defined as the spatial and temporal orders generated as pupils and teachers move and are moved through educational systems; scales are "envelopes of spacetime" into which certain schoolbased identities (and not others) can be folded.…

This report describes how the education system in the United States compares with education systems in the other Group of Eight (G-8) countries. The G-8 countries--Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States--are among the world's most economically developed countries. Comparative…

This report presents national data on teachers and teaching from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and other sources. Where data permit, the report compares findings from the early to mid-1990s with findings from the 1980s. The report addresses a wide range of topics related to teachers and teaching, including teachers' demographic…

The data presented in this combined report provide facts about the extent to which local, state, and national governments commit resources to public education. As one might expect in a nation as diverse as the United States--with respect to economics, geography, and politics--the level of commitment to education varies on a state-by-state basis.…

It is by now a familiar story, often told as a lament: teachers in United States continue to be paid according to the single salary schedule. They accrue better pay on the basis of years of experience and college units earned. Units may or may not be related to teaching assignment. Some districts have modestly tweaked this arrangement by paying a…

This book documents the "brave new world" of teacher, administrator, school, and student accountability that has swept across the United States in recent years. Its particular vantage point is the perspective of dozens of new teachers trying to make their way through their first months and years working in schools in the New York City…