Science, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to solving many of humanity's most pressing current and future challenges. The United States' position in the global economy is declining, in part because U.S. workers lack fundamental knowledge in these fields. To address the critical issues of U.S.…

This brief highlights key information about enrichment activities, which represent one of the main components of the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative. Over time, the ELT initiative has supported over two dozen schools across the Commonwealth. A comprehensive evaluation of the ELT initiative found that implementation of the…

The algebra-based introductory statistics course is the most popular undergraduate course in statistics. While there is a general consensus for the content of the curriculum, the recent Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) have challenged the pedagogy of this course. Additionally, some arguments have been made…

Recently, in an effort to improve the education and subsequent life opportunities of our nation's children, 48 states have committed to use newly developed, common national academic standards and possibly institute some common measures for assessing student learning related to these standards. This is an impressive undertaking. However,…

As part of its proposal to the U.S. Department of Education, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) committed to developing Kindergarten through Grade 2 Model Content Frameworks for English language arts (ELA)/literacy (K-2 Model Content Frameworks) to serve as a bridge between the Common Core State Standards…

This paper summarises the results of a three-day workshop conducted between October and December of 2007 as part of a larger project dedicated to improving teacher quality at the pre-service and in-service levels. Both pre- and post-test measures were administered before and after workshop completion in order to capture changes in knowledge,…

School psychology training programs are required to provide multicultural training to preservice school psychologists; however, trainers have had difficulty adequately including multicultural content into the curriculum. Thus, there is a gap between the requirements and the training that many school psychologists receive. Training programs have…

Many strong forces are converging on information systems academic departments. Among these forces are quality considerations, accreditation, curriculum models, declining/steady student enrollments, and keeping current with respect to emerging technologies and trends. ABET, formerly the Accrediting Board for Engineering and Technology, is at…

This special report, the final installment of a three-part series on e-learning, examines how schools are working to create high-quality digital curricula and online courses. It covers the influence the common-core standards are likely to have on building the online curricula of the future, the growing emphasis on teaching social skills to virtual…

The purpose of this study was to explore how high school social studies teachers made sense of curriculum work. The setting was a large, urban area in Texas with high percentages of students who were considered economically disadvantaged. The context of the study was important because these teachers were implementing revised standards and new…

In recent years, governors, chief state school officers, business leaders, and college faculty have grown increasingly concerned that American students are not adequately prepared either for college or for the workforce. Governors and chief state school officers understood that the changing economy and persistent achievement gaps required a…

"Nurturing Creativity in the Classroom" is a groundbreaking collection of essays by leading scholars, who examine and respond to the tension that many educators face in valuing student creativity but believing that they cannot support it given the curricular constraints of the classroom. Is it possible for teachers to nurture creative…

Early study of the curriculum focused on the ideal array of experiences that should comprise the psychology major. We developed a standardized coding scheme to identify common curricula and course titles across institutions and current implementation of the curriculum. We compared psychology major programs in 2005 to programs described a decade…

In Texas, the members of the State Board of Education (SBOE) are elected in a partisan election. One of the duties of the State Board of Education is overseeing the writing of curriculum standards for the various content areas. A call went out to educators across the state, asking for volunteers to write the standards. Committees were formed for…

To keep pace with accelerating technology and workplace expectations, high school and technology center students need access to high-level programs and courses that open the doors to further education and careers. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) and nine states have launched a far-reaching program to provide rigorous and relevant…