The purpose of this document is to serve as a resource for states, districts, professional organizations, teacher education programs, teachers, and others as they develop policies and programs to prepare, license, support, evaluate, and reward today's teachers. A systemic approach and supportive infrastructure are essential to successful…

Standards drive critical elements of the American educational system--the curricula that schools follow, the textbooks students read, and the tests they take. Similarly, standards establish the levels of performance that students, teachers and schools are expected to meet. To succeed in the 21st century, all students will need to perform to high…

Children's literature can broaden and enhance readers' views of themselves and others. When children's literature from abroad as well as from the United States is incorporated into the literacy practices of a first grade class, the potential exists to widen the children's perspectives of the world and build insights about others. Additionally…

As early childhood education continues to gain prominence on the agendas of policy makers across the globe, members of the field of early childhood education are concerned that these reforms will create new governing discourses that restrict how early educators are defined and limit their work with young children. While these neo-liberal policies…

Quality Counts 2010 is the 14th edition of "Education Week's" annual report card on American public education as viewed through the lens of the states' education policies and outcomes. As in the past, this year's edition is built on twin foundations: (1) the detailed data collection and analysis of the Editorial Projects in Education…

In this article, the author comments on John Radford's article "Psychology in its Place," which is a provocative and thoughtful piece on the state of psychology as a discipline in higher education. In his article, Radford introduces evidence that psychology graduates are attractive to employers for their numeracy and literacy skills and…

In this paper we will demonstrate how powerful "Bildung" is as a tool in modern university teaching. The concept of "Bildung" was originally introduced by the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (Kant 1787, 1798, 1804) and the Prussian lawyer and politician Wilhelm von Humboldt (Humboldt 1792, Bohlin 2008). From 1810…

Alternate assessments of modified academic achievement standards (AA-MAS) must be designed, developed, implemented, and validated following the same rigorous principles and procedures used for other assessments. However, the uniqueness and unfamiliarity of the target population for these assessments requires innovative thinking, especially in…

The purpose of this article is to consider the effects of the currently emerging qualifications frameworks upon the recognition of qualifications within the European Higher Education Area. We will therefore concentrate on the main principles of the assessment of foreign higher education qualifications, on the national qualifications frameworks…

For their 56th annual meeting, the Association of Educators and Researchers (ALER) met in Grand Rapids, Michigan at the Amway Grand Hotel. This year's conference theme was Literacy Is Transformative, which was also used as the title for this year's Yearbook, Volume 35. Included are double-peer reviewed papers, the presidential address,…

America continues to make progress in meeting its high school dropout challenge. Leaders in education, government, nonprofits and business have awakened to the individual, social and economic costs of the dropout crisis and are working together to solve it. This year, all states, districts, and schools are required by law to calculate high school…

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) contracted with Synergy Enterprises, Inc. and edCount, LLC, to complete a study titled Language Instruction Educational Programs (LIEPs): Lessons From the Research and Profiles of Promising Programs. This study includes a review of the foundational literature related to LIEPs, case studies…

This research sought to determine if unintended effects of increased accountability standards on graduation rates for students with disabilities existed. Data from one southeastern state were utilized in order to determine if graduation rates were impacted as a result of higher accountability standards. In addition, administrator attitudes on…

Exploring the critical role of school choice in the future of education reform, the Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI) is an interactive web application that scores large school districts based on thirteen categories of policy and practice relevant to choice. The intent of the ECCI is to: create public awareness of the differences among…

Offering key concepts about how the informed use of data can translate into highly effective school leadership, this seventh volume in "The Soul of Educational Leadership" series demonstrates how educational leaders can apply data strategically to strengthen school leadership and significantly improve professional learning, students' learning…