This study examined what teachers know about health-related fitness (HRF) and how confident they are in their knowledge. Seventy-three middle school physical education teachers completed a 3-part cognitive HRF test and a self-efficacy questionnaire that required responses to statements about how confident they were in passing a HRF knowledge test.…

The Washington Initiative (WI) was created in 2001 as an effort to help strengthen education reform in Washington by addressing teacher quality. The major strategies of the WI were to increase the number of teachers certified by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and to support the leadership of these teachers in local…

England's Teacher Training Agency interviewed 20 mainstream and special school teachers on 4 aspects of a standard for special education teachers. Responses suggest that national standards might be effective means of teacher and pupil development but also reflect a concern that creativity and flair in teaching might be affected. (DLH)

Critiques planned changes in the British National Vocational Qualifications Framework. Makes recommendations for units, credits, and credit-based qualifications. (SK)

This brief summarizes findings from several research articles that focus on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). This work focuses on three key questions: Who applies for and becomes National Board certified? Where do National Board Certified Teachers (NBCTs) teach? Are they more effective than other teachers? The…

At the present juncture, South Africa is one of the few countries that do not require a compulsory and specific qualification for principalship. This particular need has been part of a discussion among educational leaders for the past thirty to forty years. Despite all the laudable efforts to redesign the landscape of Educational Leadership and…

The looming expiration of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has prompted a flood of commission reports, studies, and punditry. Virtually all of those analyses have assumed that the law should and will be reauthorized, disagreeing only over how it should be revised. They have accepted the law's premises without argument: that…

For students to compete in the 21st-century global economy, knowledge of and proficiency in mathematics are critical. Whether headed to college or to the workforce, today's high school graduates need solid mathematics skill. The National Mathematics Advisory Panel was created in 2006 and charged with reviewing the best available scientific…

In the late 1990s, the Korea Ministry of Education and Human Resources, in response to concern over the relatively low standing of the nation's universities and researchers, launched the Brain Korea 21 program BK21). BK21 seeks to make Korean research universities globally competitive and to produce more high-quality researchers in Korea. It…

The National Standards for the Arts are part of Goals 2000. The public must be made aware of why national visual arts standards are needed and how they relate to state art education frameworks, district curriculum guides, and lesson/unit plans. The goal of all arts education is to develop basic literacy in visual arts, music, theater, and dance.…

Examines to what extent representative history textbooks used in American high schools encourage development of historical analysis and interpretation, one of five standards issued by the National Center for History in the Schools. Treatment of the Aztec Empire and the Cold War varied widely in the four textbooks studied. All texts failed the new…

Draws upon the experiences of participants in a Ph.D. program and a professional doctorate program to explore the descriptors for doctorates used by Britain's Quality Assurance Agency (QAA). Concludes that analysis of the similarities and differences between doctorate program types reveals qualitative distinctions that the QAA fails to address.…

Much like the cycles and rhythms of the seasons, implementation of the national geography standards in Colorado has, over the course of a decade, grown, developed, and changed. As with the exciting beginning of spring, our time of planting was set in motion in 1993 by the passage of Colorado House Bill 1313, which set a deadline for school…

Interest in, and debate about, teachers' attitudes, perceptions, and dispositions is not new (Cruickshank & Haefele, 2001). What is new is the inclusion of dispositions in the standards of the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE, 2003), the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS, 1998), and the…

Background: In this article we address some of the challenges posed by the development of national assessment systems and discuss the need for high quality information on trends in attainment; support for school improvement processes and ways in which learning should be enhanced through valid assessment. Purpose: Key elements are explored,…