In all the elementary schools in the county, benchmark assessments were given six times a year in math and three times in reading; they were modeled after the questions anticipated on the Maryland School Assessment (MSA). Although results were sent to the school board, there were no cosmic consequences for the hourlong tests; they were supposed to…

The focus article "Road Maps for Learning: A Guide to the Navigation of Learning Progressions" by Black, Wilson, and Yao (this issue) is a veritable tour-de-force, covering a great deal of education ground while spanning the heights from models of the interplay among curriculum, pedagogy, and assessment to interpretations of student…

What might count as a world class, national public education system in 2020? That empty cup took the floor at the 2010 Future of Learning (FoL) Summer Institute at Harvard University. It traveled from Longfellow Hall's lecture room on Appian Way to several learning groups scattered around campus. Though not deliberately created to think about…

In September 2006, the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education issued an indictment of American higher education. Costs are too high, said the panel formed by Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, graduates rates too low, and learning outcomes a mystery. Moreover, "compounding all of these difficulties is a lack of clear,…

Accountability structures and processes have become such an integral part of education policy development and implementation that Ranson (2003) argues, "accountability is no longer merely an important instrument or component within the system, but constitutes the system itself" (p. 459). This argument is supported by the growth of an…

There has been, and remains, much criticism of the external monitoring of the quality of universities' learning and teaching by bodies such as the QAA largely on the grounds that it is essentially a bureaucratic collection of data that does little, if anything, to help in improving or enhancing the learning and teaching. In this article, while…

This article started as a debate between the two authors. Both authors present a series of propositions about quality standards in education research. Cook's propositions, as might be expected, not only concern the importance of experimental trials for establishing the security of causal evidence, but also include some important practical and…

Presents an interview with "U.S. News & World Report" editors explaining how their annual undergraduate rankings work, what they measure, and how an institution can do better. (EV)

Ralph Tyler answers questions about his work in educational evaluation during the past 50 years and identifies the major problems in education today as educating disadvantaged children, improving the transition of youth into constructive adult life, and rebuilding the total educational environment for children. (MLF)

This article offers a German response to John Hull's recent article on "religious education in Germany and England" (in "BJRE", volume 27, issue 1). The author claims that recent developments have brought religious education in both countries much closer together than in the past and that the differences between the respective…

In this article (the edited keynote address to the NAEYC 15th National Institute for Early Childhood Professional Development in June) Bowman defines the four different kinds of standards-for programs, content, learning or performance, and professional development-and explains her beliefs about them. Regarding content and learning standards,…

The Commentary salutes AMATYC for its significant contributions to standards-based education in mathematics and discusses possible audiences for Beyond Crossroads, in addition to the primary audience of faculty members and departments in two-year institutions. Because Beyond Crossroads focuses on lower division college mathematics, it helps…

The Internet has become a powerful force in transforming organizations in both private and public sectors, including public education. Some educational reformers now view virtual schools, in which the majority of course content is delivered online, as a viable alternative and innovative means of educating K-12 students. As of September 2007, 42…

Argues that quality is measured by outcomes. Lists potential measures for high school quality. Considers problems and approaches to the assessment of quality-with-equity. Suggests tempering performance expectations according to germane input characteristics, evaluating the range of programs offered, and addressing the issue in terms of…

Argues that there is little rationale behind current methods of assessing higher-education quality because there is little exploration of what constitutes quality. Despite good intentions, quality monitoring has become overly bureaucratic, and potential for significant change is hampered by an inappropriate focus on accountability, not on…