If education is to make significant progress in the twenty-first century, it must embrace evidence-based reforms. Perhaps the most important requirement for evidence-based reform is the development of a substantial set of replicable programs and practices with strong evidence of effectiveness. Educators and policy makers must have a variety of…

In the 21st century, the rapid pace and complexity of economic, technological and cultural changes require women and men to adapt and re-adapt throughout their lives--all the more so in the context of globalisation. In this era of the knowledge society--where production structure is shifting towards greater knowledge use and away from reliance on…

The UK higher education community is well served for news and policy discourse by the weekly "Times Higher Education" ("THE"). "THE" also provides a window into the conduct of this community. Concern about the contribution of research to the wider society beyond academe has risen along with its scale and cost. Views…

In this article, the authors examine global economic dynamics and assess the challenges they pose for U.S. higher education. Consistent with the views of many others, they contend that higher education can and must play a critical role in preparing an increasingly diverse and highly mobile society for the speed-driven and knowledge-intensive…

National Science Foundation's (NSF's) MSP Program seeks foremost "to improve student outcomes in high-quality mathematics and science by all students, at all pre-K-12 levels". The MSP Program, consisting of a portfolio of funded projects, in part positions itself as a research and development (R&D) program. This study has addressed the need to…

The purpose of this report is to describe the work that has been done so far on learning progressions in science, examine the challenges to developing usable learning progressions, determine if further investments are warranted, and if so, what investments are needed to realize their promised benefits. The report examines the quality and utility…

This paper presents Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now's (ConnCAN's) annual report for 2009. Contents of this annual report include: (1) The Beginning; (2) Our Vision; (3) What We Do; (4) Getting Results; (5) Research--Action; (6) What's Next; (7) Take Action; and (8) The Organization. [For "ConnCAN Annual Report 2008: Faces of…

Since its inception in 2002, the National Center for Education Research (NCER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) has funded over 700 education research grants and over 60 education training grants. The research grants have supported exploratory research to build theory or generate hypotheses on factors that may affect educational…

In this paper, the author sketches a vision depicting some of the ways in which technology could revolutionize the traditional school environment--with static, printed texts replaced by adaptive, digital learning and virtual learning communities supplementing seat time. He argues that any such transformation, however, is dependent upon investment…

This report presents the Administration's National Education Technology Plan. This plan calls for applying the advanced technologies used in everyone's daily personal and professional lives to the entire education system to improve student learning, accelerate and scale up the adoption of effective practices, and use data and information for…

This article explores the role of action learning in a national programme of research and development. The aim of the programme was to improve provision for disabled learners in the learning and skills sector by supporting providers in implementing the requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act (2002). Practitioners worked on a wide range…

School middle leadership has become an important focus of attention for research and development. This paper reports on two reviews of empirical research into the nature of posts of responsibility held by teachers in secondary schools who are not regarded as part of the senior school management team. Empirical studies in the English language…

In the ongoing national conversation about science education in America, there is a new consensus that people have entered a time of crisis in their relationship to the international scientific and engineering community. When the science committee of the House of Representatives asked the National Academies, the nation's leading scientific…

School improvement without will and moral purpose--without a genuine commitment to all students--is an empty exercise in compliance that, in the authors' experience, can do more harm than good. The authors have seen educators use data to "more accurately" track students, further widening the opportunity-to-learn gap. In response to achievement…

This article takes the form of a letter to the 44th president of the United States, urging the president to pursue an aggressive agenda to improve teacher quality. The authors assert that because teacher quality is the single most important factor shown to impact student outcomes, the next administration must dedicate resources to human capital…