In 2009, Australian teacher education finally sees a series of graduate teacher standards that is designed as national benchmarking for those completing initial teacher education. The draft standards represent considerable negotiation and discourse by the various jurisdictions. They are being fine tuned in readiness for adoption across Australia…

The work elaborates the possibilities of working with pupils with special needs in music teaching foreseen by the Croatian National Education Standard. The assumptions in realizing contemporary approach for pupils with special needs, implies, among other things, changes in terminology, introduction of various contents and types of work, teachers'…

The school counseling profession has struggled throughout history to secure a legitimate integral position in the educational mission of school. The profession is more likely to gain acceptance and be seen as a legitimate profession if we understand three theories that form the foundation of professional legitimacy: Organizational Theory,…

Science education reform has long focused on assessing student inquiry, and there has been progress in developing tools specifically with respect to experimentation and argumentation. We suggest the need for attention to another aspect of inquiry, namely "mechanistic reasoning." Scientific inquiry focuses largely on understanding causal…

Purpose: In response to the challenges of enhancing quality, the agency of government which is responsible for coordinating university education in Nigeria, the National Universities Commission, evolved a system of academic programme accreditation in 1991 to ensure conformity with minimum standards and to promote quality. The purpose of this paper…

The argument for national curriculum standards sounds simple: set high standards, make all schools meet them, and watch American students achieve at high levels. It is straightforward and compelling, and it is driving a sea change in American education policy. Unfortunately, setting high standards and getting American students to hit them is…

Debates over the use of college rankings are often framed in binaries: ardent advocates versus outright rejectionists, rankers versus rankees. But the American higher education landscape is complex, and so too should be discussions of rankings. Moreover, the policymaking process is simultaneously intricate and predictable--information is processed…

In late January through early March of 2003, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grade 4 and 8 reading and mathematics assessments were administered to representative samples of students in approximately 100 public schools in each state. The results of these assessments were announced in November 2003. Each state also carried…

This issue of "The Evaluation Exchange" spotlights one of the central components of complementary learning: family involvement. There are 28 articles herein: (1) "Thinking Big: A New Framework for Family Involvement Policy, Practice, and Research" (Suzanne Bouffard and Heather Weiss) reframes family involvement as part of a broader complementary…

Examination of 6,556 hours of school counselor interns' activity logs provided a detailed description of roles and activities. Comparison of counselor intern activities to the ASCA (2005) National Model found consistency between responsive services at the elementary level and both responsive services and guidance curriculum at the middle school…

School counselors (n = 1,704) nationwide were surveyed to determine if the duties performed by them were aligned with the duties prescribed by the school counseling profession since the inception of the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) National Model in 2003. Differences were found based on participants having received ASCA National…

This book attempts to theorize cross-national attraction by comparing American and Chinese attraction to Japanese education. The study takes a long historical view--spanning roughly from the Meiji Restoration (1868) to today--to determine when and why Japanese education has become attractive to these two countries. It uses a combination of…

Every year, millions of high school students sit the Chinese national university entrance exam, and their results determine entry into universities or alternatives such as employment. Limited information about the exam is available in the Western literature even though it determines the future of millions of young people, and is increasingly of…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to question the appropriateness of a proposal for a new European Qualifications Framework. The framework has three perspectives: historical; analytical; and national. Design/methodology/approach: The approaches are diverse since the first insists on the institutional and decision-making processes at European…

Parents, educators, political leaders--all Americans need the information contained in this article. But why this poll? First, it's not just a quick snapshot of public perception. Rather, it is a serious research tool, conducted annually, that allows Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) members and other educators and policy makers to track public opinion from…