Writing practitioners, researchers, and scholars are at a juncture where foundational assumptions about the teaching of writing, its place in higher education, and its ability to help foster a truly inclusive democratic society are increasingly contested. Trust in literacy has been eroded over the past decades, coming to an acute crisis in the…

Grade retention as a major element in education and reading policy has been adopted by at least 14 states, with 32+ states linking reading intervention to high-stakes testing. These policies ignore four decades of research on the negative consequences of grade retention and the significant body of research on effective and supportive literacy…

Instructional materials are essential tools in the English language arts classroom. They allow students to interact with words, images, and ideas in ways that develop their abilities in multiple literacies such as reading, listening, viewing, thinking, speaking, writing, and technology. Because selection policies should reflect local interests and…

In this essay I pose questions to literacy teacher educators and classroom teachers to inspire them to review their epistemological beliefs about teaching, learning, and knowledge. I also provide some history of transdisciplinarity, and introduce readers to "Miss Smith", a composite of five middle school teachers who hold a transdisciplinary…

Accountability demands place tremendous pressures on high schools to meet specific standards. To satisfy demands, grading policies are becoming more liberal. Grade inflation is the result and a growing concern. This controversial subject contains a number of dangers. To combat the trend, teachers must realize the impact of grade inflation and take…

This book's title, "I Used to Think... And Now I Think...", is borrowed from an exercise often used at the end of teacher professional development sessions, in which participants write down how what they've learned has changed their thinking. The resulting essays model the ongoing process of reflection and growth among those deeply committed to…

In this timely and thoughtful book, Andrew Zucker argues that technology can and will play a central role in efforts to achieve crucial education goals, and that it will be an essential component of further improvement and transformation of schools. The book is marked not only by Zucker's cutting-edge sophistication about digital technologies, but…

Schools should be proactive rather than reactive to issues of technology safety, and this requires careful planning and policy implementation. In this article, the authors provide information and recommendations that will help middle grades educators, students, and parents to safely and successfully manage the many technologies they encounter and…

The issue of teacher quality has emerged with special force recently; between 2000 and 2005, at least 15 reports addressing teacher quality from a public policy perspective have been produced (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2005). The National Research Council has been charged by the U.S. Congress to do a national study of teacher preparation programs to…

Leila Christenbury is well known as a writer and researcher in English Education: her classic book "Making the Journey," [ED437654] now in its third edition, has been a guide to countless middle and high school language arts teachers. In her new book, this veteran teacher and teacher educator reveals what did and---more surprisingly---did not…

This document outlines a policy for the art education of and about Aboriginal people. Teachers in art education should have an understanding of Aboriginal education issues, and developers of art programs should consult with Aboriginal people before beginning work on a program and continuously throughout development. Teachers should take into…

Nigeria's Western Region established a very early, ambitious, original education policy when self-government began in 1952, adopting the African nationalist wisdom that education could spearhead a development strategy for genuine independence. Much of this paper analyzes the philosophy and recounts the implementation of this comprehensive,…

Characteristics of undergraduate psychology research conferences (UPRC) are discussed, the role of UPRCs in undergraduate education is examined, and guidelines for organizing such a conference are presented. (RM)

This paper is intended to support art education advocates and policymakers as they formulate strategies for broadening the base of school offered visual art experiences through discipline-based art education (DBAE). The study is divided into three sections. The first section of the paper concerns assumptions, ideas, and perspectives underlying the…

The increasing competitiveness in international industry has raised new demands for effective research management, resulting in an array of science policy techniques and extensive experimentation. However, the new techniques must be tested, developed, and refined and applied with considerable caution before science policy can be based on them…