Over the past 15 months, the Virginia Board of Education has been redesigning its public school students' high school educational experience to better prepare them to participate in the global economy. To lay the groundwork for this redesign, the Profile of a Graduate was developed. The profile in turn grew out of a broader review of Virginia's…

Until the late 1990s, "vocational education" in traditional trades such as carpentry, cosmetology, and auto mechanics was often the presumptive high school placement for low-performing students considered ill-suited for college. However, in the past two decades, policymakers and educators have reconsidered what is now referred to as…

This overview of postsecondary education in the United States reviews the dramatic changes over the past fifty years in the students who go to college, the institutions that produce higher education, and the ways it is financed. The article, by Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose, and Michael McPherson, creates the context for the articles that follow on…

Three concerns were the focusing points for the conference: (1) the impact the continuing change in the student population has on the faculty; (2) the implications for higher education and society in general with respect to increasing demands for the credentialing of professional competency; and (3) the ways in which higher education can respond…

The question of how to best prepare nurses for practice continues to be debated extensively. The crux of the debate is whether a bachelor of science in nursing (BSN) should be required of all registered nurses in the United States or whether an associate degree in nursing (ADN) and diploma programs adequately prepare novice nurses for practice.…