Geoscience education researchers have considerable need for criterion-referenced, easy-to-administer, easy-to-score, conceptual surveys for undergraduates taking introductory science survey courses in order for faculty to monitor the learning impacts of innovative teaching. In response, this study establishes the reliability and validity of a…

The assessment of educational progress and outcomes of pupils is important to all concerned with education. This includes testing which is undertaken for accountability and award bearing purposes. This article examines how students with special educational needs and disability (SEND) are included in assessment. An "inclusive assessment"…

The competition for jobs in the 21st century is increasingly being driven by defining postsecondary learning in light of new and complex environments. To succeed, students must be prepared with knowledge to compete in these environments. Historically, higher education has defined these requirements in their own terms, often through learning…

Purpose: Quality assurance (QA) at one University has evolved over the past 15 years through emerging National and European standards, various leadership initiatives and through the engagement of key stakeholders in co-designing and implementing internal QA processes. In 2000, the QA process was focussed mainly on quality review (QR) that involved…

The "National Standards for Financial Literacy" describe the knowledge, understanding, and skills that are important for students to learn about personal finance. They are designed to guide teachers, school administrators, and other educators in developing curriculum and educational materials for teaching financial literacy. In this…

In 2011, OFSTED produced its triennial report, "Successful Science" (OFSTED, 2011), celebrating the successes of science in English schools over the previous three years and informing educators of what things still needed to be addressed. The Primary Science Quality Mark (PSQM, www.psqm.org.uk) was highlighted as helping to address many…

Currently in the United States, 50 states, 5 territories, and the District of Columbia have established prekindergarten (pre-K) age 4 learning standards that are intended to outline skills and knowledge that set children on a path to success in kindergarten and upcoming grades. These standards are emphasized as a centralizing force in early…

The revised New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) was introduced in 2007 and seen as an opportunity for schools and communities to work together to provide a curriculum that reflected local needs. The NZC identifies learning areas providing students with the foundation on which they can develop and later specialise. It would be expected that this broad…

The Common Core State Standards, released in 2010, were rapidly adopted by more than 40 states. Champions maintained that these rigorous standards would transform American education, but the initiative went on to encounter a bumpy path. A decade on, what are we to make of this ambitious effort? What kind of impact, if any, has it had on the…

Science education has experienced a significant transition over the last decade, catalyzed by a re-envisioning of what students should know and be able to do in science. That re-envisioning culminated in the release of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in 2013. The new standards set off a chain reaction of standards adoption and…

Globalization and Ukraine association with EU imply including Ukrainian universities into the world scientific space. The aim of this article is to analyze the problem of drawing standards teaching, based on the experience of Ivano-Frankivsk National Technical University of Oil and Gas (Ukraine) and to summarize the experience of post Soviet…

The rationale of the problem under study is conditioned by the fact that the compulsory study of a second foreign language at school is a new, but by all means positive phenomenon, as the introduction of a second foreign language in the secondary school curriculum has become a practical step on the way to polycultural education, to the formation…

Although U.S. high school students' access to Earth and space science (ESS) varies widely from state to state, nationally, ESS content is the most neglected area of science education and scientific literacy. States have been considering whether they will formally adopt, or less formally adapt, the new national science education standards, the Next…

NGSS Early Implementers is a four-year initiative created to help eight California school districts and two charter management organizations, supported by WestEd's K-12 Alliance, implement Next Generation Science Standards. The Initiative focuses on NGSS implementation in grades K-8 and incorporates the integrated course model (preferred by the…

In 1994, aggressive leadership from the National Association for Music Education resulted in the adoption of the nine National Standards for Music Education. Now, almost two decades later, much has changed. Standards have been studied and critiqued, and scholars have undertaken a great deal of research to identify best practices not only for…