As schools across the state implement the Next Generation Science Standards, this EdSource primer provides an easy-to-read guide for parents and other community members to understand the rationale for the standards and their potential to affect science instruction in California schools. California adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, or…

This enlightening handbook offers current, international perspectives on the conditions in communities, contemporary practices in schooling, relevant research on teaching and learning, and implications for the future of education. It contains diverse conceptual frameworks for analyzing existing issues in education, including but not limited to…

The "Value-Added School Review (VSR)" is an analytical model designed to assist schools in identifying and addressing opportunities for school improvement. The model works best when it is focused purposefully on students and the student learning outcomes as defined in the "Guide to Education". It complements the processes…

This volume makes two important contributions: First, it provides a framework grounded in theory and best professional practice that middle and high school teachers, their students, and community partners can use to design, implement, and evaluate service-learning projects that address authentic community needs. Second, it demonstrates ways…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Enlightened Public Policy and includes: (1) Texas Education Policy: Prospects for 2009 (Albert Cortez); (2) Bilingual Education in…

The research reported in this book provides reliable evidence on and knowledge about mathematics and science instruction that emphasizes student understanding--instruction consistent with the needs of students who will be citizens in an increasingly demanding technological world. The National Center for Improving Student Learning in Mathematics…

The classified honours degree has so much prestige and so venerable a tradition that only very serious and systemic changes could justify the question as to whether classification has a future. However, while this paper argues that such changes have indeed taken place in the past 30 years, the main arguments for change are pedagogical. The…

The "comprehensive" high schools that now educate almost all young people in Colorado and elsewhere in the United States were designed in a different era for a different economy. American comprehensive high schools were intended to provide a basic education in reading, writing, and arithmetic, preparing most students for work and some…

Student assessment, from the classroom to the state and national levels, is changing. The era of norm-referenced, multiple choice, standardized tests may be coming to an end, to be replaced by other forms of assessment, not all equally good. This guide outlines a vision of what assessment in the service of learning can be and provides ideas,…

This publication explores the relationship between state systemic reform initiatives and state student assessment programs using a database established by the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and interviews with state assessment directors in California, Indiana, Maryland, Michigan, Texas, and Vermont. States throughout the country are…

Based on principles of the Council for Basic Education, this book outlines a curriculum and pedagogy for an elementary school which would prepare children for national fourth grade examinations. The book is divided into six sections. The first section examines the background of elementary school students in the 1990s and presents ways for schools…

This document presents tools and guidelines to help practitioners transform their high schools into institutions facilitating community-connected learning. The approach underpinning the tools and guidelines is based on the following principles: academic rigor and relevance; personalized learning; self-passage to adulthood; and productive learning…