The emergence of the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG) for Quality Assurance has been seen as an important step towards realising the European Higher Education Area by creating more transparency and accountability in the area of quality assurance. The ESG also include standards as to how quality assurance agencies should be reviewed. In a…

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) Does Demography Dictate Destiny? The Radical…

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the nature of activities in the change process undertaken by two initiatives to produce national standards in academic disciplines, national assessments and accountability measures. The Common Core State Standards Initiative, a project coordinated by the National Governors Association and the Council of…

"Education Matters" is the monthly newsletter of the Association of American Educators (AAE), an organization dedicated to advancing the American teaching profession through personal growth, professional development, teacher advocacy and protection. This issue of the newsletter includes: (1) You Speak Out: 2010 AAE Member Survey; (2) Five Ways to…

The American K-12 education system is under fire--and schools of education are no exception. Even the U.S. Secretary of Education and the presidents and deans of many teachers colleges and education schools themselves number among the critics. Alternative certification programs are blossoming in every corner of the land, competing for the bread…

Professional assessment organizations almost universally endorse the use of multiple measures for making education decisions. In practice, however, the concept of multiple measures is defined and applied in many different ways, depending on how we answer two questions--What counts as a "measure"? and How are the multiple measures…

The debate over the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) generally overlooks--or looks past--what may be the most fundamental flaw in that legislation. As the law is now written, decisions regarding what the young should know and be able to do are removed from the hands of parents and local community leaders and turned over to officials…

"Perspective" is a monthly e-newsletter presenting news and views from Achieve. This month's issue commences with a report stating how over the past five years, since the National Governors Association (NGA) and Achieve co-sponsored the National Education Summit on High Schools, states have made impressive progress in aligning their high…

Standards-based education reform has a more than 20-year history. A standards-based vision was enacted in federal law under the Clinton administration with the 1994 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and carried forward under the Bush administration with the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001. In a recent…

There are serious implications of the global economy for teacher education. In this paper, the authors identify some of the influences of the global economy on education and teacher education, point out responses to these, and discuss some of the resultant challenges from the vantage point of the United States.

The recently elected National Government has proceeded, under urgency, to pass the Education (National Standards) Amendment Bill, legislation that seeks to provide specific information for both schools and parents about how well every primary and intermediate school student (Years 1 to 8) is progressing in literacy and numeracy compared with other…

This research study examined the use of student achievement on reading and math state assessments to predict success on the science state assessment. Multiple regression analysis was utilized to test the prediction for all students in grades 5 and 8 in a mid-Atlantic state. The prediction model developed from the analysis explored the combined…

In recent years, teacher educators in the Netherlands and the USA have developed professional standards for their occupational groups. These standards have been used to identify the professional expertise of teacher educators, to analyse their professional development needs, and to provide assessment mechanisms for accreditation. This article…

This study examined whether instructional policies at the local level are becoming standardized as a result of state and federal accountability initiatives. A stratified random sample of 21 Virginia school districts was used, and the policies reviewed covered seven topics: class size, student grouping, homework, remedial instruction programs,…

Programs supported by the Carl D. Perkins Act of 2006 are required to operate under the state or national content standards, and are expected to carry out evaluation procedures that address accountability. The Indiana high school course, "Advanced Life Science: Foods" ("ALS: Foods") operates under the auspices of the Perkins…