Describes the National Board for Professional Teacher Standards (NBPTS), addressing the types of certification available to teachers and the NBPTS propositions. Discusses the procedures for NBPTS certification and the types of certification areas for elementary social studies teachers. (CMK)

Explores the argument introduced by the "Mozart Effect" research: that music's positive influence on spatial-temporal reasoning should be the purpose for music education. Considers the implications by reshaping the National Standards for Music Education to fulfill the spatial-temporal rationale. Suggests how to reconcile musical and…

Considers the use of history in politics and the debate about the national history standards. Discusses the view of history and history teaching in Sweden (providing background information), a comparison between the United States and Sweden, and the history standards in Sweden. (CMK)

Focuses on assessing student learning in relation to the National Standards for Music Education, covering topics such as content-related evidence of validity (the extent to which an assessment covers the content of instruction), assessment frameworks, weighing content areas, and frequency of assessment. Provides recommendations. (CMK)

Examines the issue of national curriculum standards within social studies education. Addresses conservative and liberal viewpoints, insights from the works of John Dewey, Paulo Freire, and Michel Foucault on how a radical Left critique developed, an essay by E. Wayne Ross as a case study, and the implications of the radical Left critique. (CMK)

Considers educational reform and arts education, asserting that education is at a strategic inflection point (a transition from old to new ways). Discusses the importance of student learning, the signals for the inflection point, the knowledge of students and teachers, the role of teacher education, and a framework for attending to the inflection…

Notes that limited opportunities for education prevent many Vietnamese people from realizing their full potential. Discusses the need for education and training, describes target groups and training curriculum for distance education, outlines directives and perspectives, and details national policies on open learning and distance education…

Summerhill School has recently come under fire from England's educational bureaucracy, who are calling for its closure for noncompliance with the British national curriculum. The school has responded that it will not change its noncompulsory status nor any aspect of its educational philosophy that distinguishes it as a democratic, free school. (LP)

Focuses on a 1998 University of Nevada project in which forty elementary and middle school teachers learned about the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS) "Notable Social Studies Trade Books for Young People" and the NCSS thematic strands. Highlights strategies that emerged from the project that integrates children's literature…

Reviews key curriculum models to illustrate how geography is facing increased competition for class time. Addresses the need for a standards-based scope and sequence. Focuses on a project that prepared a content-specific scope and sequence, displayed as a matrix, and a teacher's guide for geographic education in grades K-12. (CMK)

In this article, the author analyzes and summarizes geographic education in Louisiana from a historical perspective with a specific emphasis on the degree to which geography was implemented into the state's standards. To accomplish that, he draws from the following three sources of information: active and retired social studies teachers from a…

The U.S. Department of Education's first-ever evaluation of how states are meeting requirements for English-language learners under the federal No Child Left Behind Act can be looked at two ways. One view of the report, which was released to Congress on March 15, 2005, is that states have made great strides in laying the groundwork for schools to…

End-of-year student play days are frequently a tradition that provides elementary students an opportunity to be active in a fun, festive environment. Physical educators can use play days as a time to authentically assess their students while the students are enjoying the activities. Those planned by the students themselves have been found to be…

This article, the third in a series of articles from the National Association for Sport and Physical Education (NASPE) sport structures, explains how the following two scenarios relate to Domain 4 Standards: (1) two adolescent boys have different baseball throwing skill levels, even though they have been on the same team for the past four years;…

The call for curriculum integration "with" and "through" the arts is evident within many elementary school environments. Arts specialists are frequently asked to link their classroom curriculum to other content area instructional goals and standards. Furthermore, fully one third of national, state and local content standards in the arts (music,…