The number of people attempting and passing the GED has plummeted. The Ohio economy is tough on low-wage workers with limited formal education. Without a high school diploma, it is virtually impossible to get a family-supporting job. But the GED has become a barricade, blocking Ohio workers from career goals, instead of a launching pad. Employers…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), funded by the Institute of Education Sciences, examines how college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. This brief presents findings from C-SAIL's…

Standardized testing serves several purposes. Tests provide feedback on a student's performance. They can help teachers understand student achievement relative to class objectives. Tests can also help administrators identify excellent teachers and those who need more professional support. And, likewise, they can help administrators and…

The Rostrum is a quarterly publication of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Power in the Collective: Faculty, Collegial Consultation, and Collaboration (Julie Bruno); (2) The ASCCC Budget and Fiscal Reporting (Julie Adams and John Freitas); (3) Building Bridges:…

Guam Department of Education (GDOE) is a single unified school district consisting of Kindergarten thru 12 grade. Its 26 Elementary Schools, 8 Middle Schools, 6 High Schools, and 1 alternative school serves nearly 31,000 students, and is managed by the Superintendent who is the Executive Secretary of a 12-member Guam Education Board (GEB). This…

Following the 2012-13 administrators welcome back kick-off meeting, superintendent Pat highlighted the district's plan to roll-out of the new Common Core State Standards (CCSS), including integration of learning experiences that would prepare students for the new Common Core assessments from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC).…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to discuss issues of contemporary language conflict in educational contexts. Design/methodology/approach: This is a conceptual paper which examines current educational practices and policies through the lens of linguistic hegemony. Findings: The authors identify three primary areas in which linguistic hegemony…

This publication reviews key structures, policies and reforms in the area of achievement in the basic skills (literacy, mathematics and science). It contains fi ve indicators on policies for organising nationally standardised tests, producing national reports on achievement, using student performance data in school evaluation, addressing…

This evidence guide provides detailed research summaries on the effectiveness of specific afterschool programs for improving outcomes for students in grades K-12. The purpose of the guide is to present information that education agencies, afterschool providers, and others can use as they make decisions about afterschool programming. The guide is a…

In this article Kavita Gupta describes how she used assessment "as" learning, where students learn, self-correct, and collaborate "during" the assessment (Rowe 2012) in her AP chemistry class. In her class, she used these assessments as learning for "performance-based assessments" (PBAs). They share attributes of both…

How important is it that every student in a school is excited about learning? Should a student be allowed to use all his/her strengths in learning? Do you know someone who wasn't a particularly good student but has been very successful in life? What these seemingly unrelated questions have in common is an appreciation for the range of talents that…

In 2011, the Arizona State Legislature adopted a law creating the first education savings account (ESA) in the United States. Following Arizona's lead, several other states, including Florida Tennessee,Mississippi and Nevada, have implemented ESA policies. Typical eligibility requirements include conditions such as a pupil's diagnosed disability,…

As more and more cities and states diversify the educational options available to parents and students, creating magnet, open-enrollment, small school, career and technical, charter, and private school opportunities, educational choice markets need to become a part of the regulation conversation. In this report, Mike McShane examines the…

The School Quality or Student Success (SQ/SS) indicator was one of the most talked about and biggest decisions that fell to the states in drafting their new ESSA accountability plans. This memo summarizes the chosen SQ/SS measures for each state, DC, and Puerto Rico. The most common SQ/SS measures among the states are: (1) Chronic Absenteeism (37…

Over the past decades many teaching strategies have been proposed by various educators to improve education of all students including students with special needs. No single one of these proposed teaching strategies meets the needs of all students. The new Every Student Succeeds Act, successor to No Child Left behind Law, which transfers oversight…