This article presents the authors' response to Asha K. Jitendra's Response to Xin and Zhang ("The Journal of Educational Research," 2009, Vol. 102, No. 6). The claim of "factual errors, including inappropriate quotes, misrepresentation of information, and inadequate scholarship in Xin and Zhang's text" are not justified. In this rejoinder, the…

Purpose: In this epilogue, I respond to each of the five commentaries, discussing in some depth a central issue raised in each commentary. In the final section, I discuss how my thinking about certainty and uncertainty in clinical practice has evolved since I wrote the initial article. Method: Topics addressed include the similarities/differences…

The author believes the two most valuable employees in an organization are the valued person(s) that has been there forever and helped build the infrastructure and processes and a "new guy" who questions why they exist. The seasoned professionals not only understand the processes, infrastructure, culture, educational programs, and vision, but were…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative continues to gather strength. But the evidence presented by its developers--the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)--seems lacking compared to the independent reviews and the available research on the topic that suggest otherwise. In this…

Glenn Smith, APPA's Vice President for Professional Development, had the honor of introducing the closing panel discussion at APPA's annual conference in Boston last July--a discussion centered on the theme "Inventing Our Future." Previous general plenary sessions and related breakout sessions had explored the challenges people face in these…

Southern African Development Community (SADC) nations in principle endorse lifelong learning (LLL) as a useful framework for sustainable development. However, in spite of the rhetoric, only a few member states such as South Africa, Botswana and Namibia have officially endorsed LLL in their educational policies. The sub-region is plagued by social…

In this article the author writes that identifying proper moral preferences should not be something that administrators have to deliberately think about before decision-making. Paul Wagner begins the discussion by saying that ideally, the identification of operative moral principles should persist throughout the decision-making process itself. To…

A decade ago, it was disconcertingly easy to find education leaders who dismissed student achievement data and systematic research as having only limited utility when it came to improving schools or school systems. Today, we have come full circle. Educators have made great strides in using data, and it is hard to attend an education conference or…

This writing shares the first author's personal experience with alcohol, the negative consequences of his choices, and the ultimate answering of the question, "Am I an alcoholic and should I drink again?" The decision-making process and the eventual answer come from Blaise Pascal, a 17th-century mathematician. This process is explained and…

Many states are looking at effective ways to use financial incentives to encourage students to complete a postsecondary credential. JFF's new report, "Statewide Aid Policies to Improve College Access and Success", originally commissioned by the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education's Vision Project, has provided valuable…

In this paper, the authors call for an approach that, in recognizing the economic realities facing most institutions, attempts to put aside objections that funding is simply not available to support an expansion of the current tenure system. In calling for the changes in faculty working conditions, the authors recognize that change will…

This article offers a commentary on the report by Russel Ogden (2010/this issue) on the use of the "debreather" for suicide assistance by the NuTech (or New Technologies for Self-Deliverance) program. The emergence of NuTech is set within its historical and political context. Nu Tech is criticized for its anarchic and extreme advocacy of…

Five empirically based critiques have undermined the standard assumption that conscious thought is primarily for input (obtaining information from the natural environment) or output (the direct control of action). Instead, we propose that conscious thought is for internal processing, to facilitate downstream interaction with the social and…

Michael Slote proposes a rethinking of moral education from the perspective of a normative ethics of care combined with his distinctive sentimentalist metaethics. I raise questions concerning the role of empathy in Slote's picture and argue that empathy is related to respect and sentiments through which we hold ourselves and one another…

There never seems to be enough time to teach everything that administrators, policy advocates, parents, legislators, and the general public think should be addressed in the elementary classroom. Each year, elementary teachers are asked to add more and more to their already crowded curriculum. Add to this the pressures of state standards and making…