Reacting directly to the fact that even the best syllabus is worthless to the student who does not read it, this essay draws inspiration from research of the past decade, especially from the learning-focused syllabus concept that was introduced by three researchers at the University of Virginia, and uses a questionnaire to gauge our community…

Essentially, the syllabus is a physical artifact outlining key structural elements of a course. It often serves contractual, record keeping, and/or communication functions. It is the place where faculty describe what content they will cover, what books and articles their students will read, the assignments they will complete, dates when things are…

This article discusses an online graduate education course at George Mason University in the United States. The course, part of a certificate program for International Baccalaureate (IB) educators, focuses on infusing human rights instruction in PK-12 classrooms and provides teachers with additional methods and strategies to teach various…

Virginia's "College and Career Ready English Performance Expectations" grade 12 capstone course contains high-interest contextualized content designed to give certain students an additional boost for competent and successful entry into college and careers. The course will add to students' preparation for critical reading, college and…

West Springfield High School sits on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in Fairfax County, Virginia. WSHS is home to a thriving and growing technology education program. In recent years, the program has exploded from less than 175 students to well over 425. These numbers are expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future. In 2002, the…

The Standards of Learning in this publication represent a major development in public education in Virginia. Adopted in February 2007 by the Virginia Board of Education, these standards emphasize the importance of foreign language instruction in the Commonwealth and, therefore, are an important part of Virginia's efforts to provide challenging…

The Fine Arts Standards of Learning in this publication represent a major development in public education in Virginia, emphasizing the importance of instruction in the fine arts (dance arts, music, theatre arts, and visual arts) as an important part of Virginia's efforts to provide challenging educational programs in the public schools. Knowledge…

The standards in this document resulted from a statewide effort to identify a scope and sequence of content, concepts, skills, and attitudes in social studies from kindergarten through grade twelve. The goals embodied in the standards include: (1) providing experiences that enable students to participate in society effectively and responsibly; (2)…

Project International Emphasis (PIE), a curriculum development effort involving all 24 colleges in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS), focuses on the infusion of globally oriented components across the academic curriculum and in related career development programs. Activities undertaken during the project's first year included an annual…

This guide contains information and hands-on activities to guide students through the problem-solving process needed in engineering (problem solving, presentation, and impact analysis) and information to help the instructor manage the program or courses in Virginia. Following an introduction, the guide contains a program description that supplies…

This curriculum guide was developed as a model for schools in Virginia to prepare local programs of studies in business education. The Business Program contains 21 courses plus a 4-year sequence of courses for office specialist and a local option for students with disabilities. This guide contains an overview of the Business Program, information…

The course of study represents the second of six modules in advanced crop and soil science and introduces the agriculture student to the subject of physical features of the soil. Upon completing the two day lesson, the student will be able to determine the texture and structural types of soil, list the structural classes of the soil and where they…

This curriculum guide was developed as a model for schools in Virginia to prepare local programs of studies for the marketing program. In addition to marketing competencies for developing occupational expertise, this curriculum includes foundational competencies important for successful performance in marketing. These baseline competencies address…

The course of study represents the first of six modules in advanced crop and soil science and introduces the agriculture student to the topic of soil management. Upon completing the two day lesson, the student will be able to define "soil", list the soil forming agencies, define and use soil terminology, and discuss soil formation and…

This document is a competency-based curriculum guide for use in marketing/distributive education programs in Virginia high schools. Following a section on the Virginia standards for competency-based education, the guide provides descriptions for all courses in the Virginia curriculum in the marketing/distributive education program. For each…