States are moving to close the gap between high school preparation and college and workforce readiness, but momentum is far greater in some policy areas than in others, a 50-state survey shows. At the National Education Summit on High Schools, state governors agreed to a broad set of actions needed to address the gap. Those include raising…

Using data from a larger 4-year evaluation of England's National Literacy and Numeracy Strategies, this study tested the effects of a school-specific model of transformational leadership on teachers (motivation, capacities, and work settings), their classroom practices, and gains in student achievement. Some 2,290 teachers from 655 primary schools…

The increasing emphasis on accountability in early care and education has created an opportunity for programs to revisit their child assessment practices. This article presents a model for using authentic assessment practices to document children's progress toward a set of program standards, specifically the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, as…

Professional associations have an obligation to ensure the quality of professional preparation and practice, to provide continuing professional education, and to recognize those practitioners who take steps to improve their knowledge and practice. To date, no student affairs association has fully operationalized or embraced these ideas. The future…

In this article, the author discusses Iowa's deference to local autonomy. Unlike most states, Iowa continues its long history of local independence by allowing districts to set their own goals. In the late 1990s, when the nation's governors and business leaders threw their weight behind the push for statewide academic standards, Iowa begged to…

It is the conclusion of the Committee on Assessing Technological Literacy, a study panel appointed by the National Academy of Engineering and the National Research Council, that very little is known about what children or adults know, can do, and believe about technology. This is because the state of assessment related to technology--or, …

The appropriate age for students to begin school is an issue of debate for educators, administrators, and parents. Parents worry that young children may not be able to compete with older classmates; schools worry that young students will not be able to meet rigorous academic standards associated with school accountability. Past literature is…

Beginning with the 2000 and 2001 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) assessments, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has made technical documentation available on the worldwide web at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/tdw/. The web-based documentation is designed to be less dense and more accessible than prior…

The Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) is an independent, not-for-profit membership organisation dedicated to raising levels of achievement in secondary education. It has a membership of over 4900 schools and organisations. SSAT works with head teachers, teachers and students to encourage them to develop and share new and effective…

A major challenge facing the prekindergarten-12 education system in the United States is the fact that as the population changes, the particular needs of children change with it. One of the largest demographic shifts over the last ten years is the sharp increase in the number of students in public schools who speak English as their second language…

This paper focuses on Hungary's arts and cultural education. The cultural area "arts" has the following sub-areas: music, dance and drama, visual culture, film and media. In accordance with the contemporary approach to art, these are all independent branches of art. Although they have a number of common features, they are very different…

This paper focuses on Italy's arts and cultural education. The Ministry of Education is responsible for setting the national curriculum and for the cultural axes. The decisions on all the cultural and creative aims for each type of education are taken at national level and at the level of each individual school. At national level the guidelines…

This paper focuses on Cyprus's arts and cultural education. The Cyprus Ministry of Education and Culture is responsible for setting the aims for cultural and creative dimensions of education. Decisions about the creation of the curriculum related to culture and creativity within education, as well as the arts curriculum are made at a central…

This paper focuses on Czech Republic's arts and cultural education. The decisions related to cultural and creative dimension of education are made at the central level, by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. The Ministry is responsible for the development of the Framework Educational Programme for Basic Education (FEP BE). One of the aims…

This paper focuses on the Netherland's arts and cultural education. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science is responsible for setting the aims for cultural and creative dimensions of formal education. Decisions related to the implementation of arts curriculum are made at school level. The cultural and creative aims of the whole curriculum…