The teacher standards movement and effective schools research movement both proclaim that all students can learn, irrespective of family background, wealth, gender, or ethnicity. Effective schools research promotes seven correlates as core to schools where students learn and achieve: clear school mission, high expectations for success,…

Complying with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has presented special problems for small, rural, and isolated schools. This document presents results of surveys and interviews of county and district superintendents, principals, teachers, trustees, and curriculum directors of small, rural, and isolated schools in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon,…

The purpose of this paper is four-fold. Following a brief review of recent policy recommendations, two failed attempts to restructure teacher compensation, merit pay, and career ladders are reviewed. Second, research-based recommendations for new approaches to restructuring teacher compensation are synthesized. Next, based on one of these…

This paper examines the practice of successful urban teachers, exploring the validity of National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) and Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) urban teacher assessments. Results from a literature review and empirical evidence indicate that successful teaching occurs when…

A discussion of the "Standards for Foreign Language Learning" set by the language teaching profession in 1996 focuses on how the standards for communication skill are to be implemented in the second language classroom. Three different approaches designed to help learners reach the goals outlined in the standards document are presented:…

Contends that citizenship education has become a political agenda rather than an educational concern. Argues that the national standards movement is fueled by opponents of multicultural education, global education, and an integrated social studies curriculum. (CFR)

Noting ongoing difficulties in identifying the fundamental role of social studies in educating young children, this chapter focuses on how children begin to develop historical and geographic understanding. The chapter considers age-appropriate and developmental concerns and the role of national standards in history and geography. The chapter…

Unlike those of several of it major economic competitors, the U.S. system of preparation for work stresses educational attainment rather than qualitative standards or occupationally specific assessments of knowledge or skills. The resultant emphasis on longer education produces a more qualified work force, but the quest for longer schooling has…

Research indicates that there is a correlation between exposure of violence in the media and in entertainment and student behavior. Many students have been victims themselves of violent, verbal, and physical assaults. Classroom teachers and educators continue to address this issue locally in classrooms and in their schools. Amid the various…

Maintains that current efforts to reform education and social studies are cycles of media hyperbole and political hope. Contends that issues underlying various programs are really about power and control. Argues that social studies has a role in making schools and students models of democratic thought and action. (CFR)

Building on the strengths and shortcomings of modernist views of organizations and leadership, this discursive paper enters the national conversation among scholars and practitioners about what constitutes the core of their knowledge and practice. It provides a discussion of three national themes about the core of educational…

A study synthesized findings of research in marketing education (ME) from 1979-89 in these 10 categories: administration, curriculum, evaluation, guidance/counseling, human resource, instruction, learner characteristics, philosophy and objectives, program design, and teacher education. During the 1980s, continued environmental threats and…

This paper presents the theories of L.S. Vygotsky as a conceptual framework for implementing instruction that supports concept development and promotes higher level thinking skills in students. Three major components (i.e., language, scientific and spontaneous concepts, and the zone of proximal development) of Vygotsky's socio-cultural-historical…

Identifies trends in 1994 professional education literature, including school reform, national standards, school choice and vouchers, charter schools, outcome-based education and performance assessment, religious right's political gains, school safety, violence, conflict mediation, finance, adolescents and children at risk, vocational education,…

Establishment of a national-state system of world-class occupational skill standards is a first step in restructuring adult vocational-technical education and job training programs. Occupational skills standards provide the necessary foundation for addressing three major state policy issues: the state's proper role in private work-based training,…