There can be no denying the influence of competencies on the development of the school and its curricula. It is increasingly the case that, to enrol in a socio-economic fabric, whether locally or globally, learners--male or female--must learn to place their knowledge and know-how at the service of action: they must be able to deal with complex…

The phrase "Education 3.0" is used to signal a complex and still-evolving paradigm shift from the traditional schooling models of the 19th and 20th centuries (Education 1.0), via an intensified focus on teachers' and school leaders' accountabilities in relation to students' learning (Education 2.0), towards a more holistic model of…

Areas of our country are headed toward significant social and political unrest if education ignores the demographic trends reshaping our schools. This article describes how one teacher training program in South Carolina examined its cultural context, accreditation standards, and course offerings to restructure its curriculum to address cultural…

This study describes the multifaceted components of an assessment process. The paper explains a novel approach in which an advisory council participated in a "fun," hands-on activity to rank-order learning outcomes. The top ranked learning competency, as identified by the advisory council, was the need for students to gain a better…

The symbolic function of curricular debate, as it is manifested in the minimum competency testing movement (MCT), is investigated. Curricular debate necessarily reflects the demands of the society in which it arises. The topics that are addressed spring from this milieu and the language in which issues are couched must be appropriate to it.…

This document is the first of a two-part series designed to help teachers, schools, and districts to implement standards-based instruction. Part 1, The Foundation for Improvement, explains why standards-based instruction improves teaching and learning. Part 2, First Steps to a Standards-Based Classroom, describes how to adapt the curriculum to…

Mastery learning can combine the strengths of direct instruction with the strengths of discovery learning. This paper describes how mastery learning is being used in Missouri schools to enhance the quality of instruction in science at all grade levels. In addition, the dramatic results in student science achievement that have occurred within the…

Resulting from a project involving district, state, and federal educational agencies, the papers in this, the first of two volumes, are intended to provide information from research and practice that can help school districts in their efforts to make decisions about goals and methods of basic skills instruction. The topics of the papers in the…

Presents and analyzes the first year's results of a longitudinal study designed to measure teachers' and principals' stages of concern regarding implementation of a potentially controversial innovation--benchmark testing. Results indicate that the responding 241 teachers and 52 principals were positively disposed and interested in making the…

Examines mathematics courses offered during the 1980s' educational reform in response to increased course requirements and competency testing. Schools increased numbers of courses, but they were primarily low level. Reforms rarely affected middle- and upper-level achievers but significantly affected at-risk students. Increased testing requirements…

Legislation dealing with competency testing in general falls into the following categories: (1) mandating uniform statewide minimum competency testing, to which high school diplomas and/or grade promotion is related; (2) mandating uniform statewide minimum competency testing to be used for improvement of instruction but not tied to grade promotion…

Productive changes in schooling throughout the 1980s are contingent on emphasis being placed on school effectiveness rather than on curriculum adjustments. Today's curriculum sprawl, caused by the state and federal legislatures' penchant for creating courses to cure newly-emerging social ills, must not deplete resources that should be directed…

Fear of poor teaching and low national test scores have spawned a back to basics movement and a shift from the use of tests as predictors and models to that of assessment and achievement. This movement may have positive impact on the teaching of English, which previously has not lent itself well to standardized testing. Although many English…

The Minimum Requirement Program (MRP) was introduced in Israel in the 1960s but was discontinued. The Parenthesis Program, a 1962 revision of the original program, restricted objectives in the syllabus which were deemed too difficult. Achievement gaps between population subgroups existed in the 1980s when a new MRP was developed. (GDC)

Developing A CurriculUM (DACUM) is an approach to job/occupational analysis. The profile chart that results from DACUM analysis is a low-cost, effective method of quickly determining what tasks must be performed by employees in a given job or occupational area. The DACUM analysis can be used as a basis for the following: curriculum development;…