Many higher education institutions use student evaluation systems as a way of highlighting course and lecturer strengths and areas for improvement. Globally, the student voice has been increasing in volume, and capitalising on student feedback has been proposed as a means to benefit teacher professional development. This paper examines the student…

This chapter is a case study of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching's Pathways [TM] program. The goal of the Statway [Registered Trademark] and Quantway [Registered Trademark] pathways is to improve the success rate of community college students who place into developmental mathematics. What makes these programs unique is…

That No Child Left Behind (NCLB) places unprecedented demands on districts and schools to improve student performance is trite and a truism. That NCLB places unprecedented demands on the design and productive use of accountability systems may be less well appreciated. In this article, the author considers how accountability is supposed to work to…

Argues that defining "progress" is fundamental to understanding how effective educational research is in improving practice. Discusses the problem of partial specification and its consequences for defining the research-practice relationship. Presents three different, but complementary, approaches to defining "progress":…

The purpose of this report is to document the development of the McREL Approach for those interested in school improvement. This document builds upon an earlier intensive site report (McIver & Dean, 2004) and the preliminary McREL Approach report (Dean, 2004). The first section describes the McREL Approach framework, which includes six stages…

A multimedia approach to education can be more effective than using a single, isolated medium. It encourages students to develop skills that print alone doesn't and enables educators to boost the value of media children are being exposed to anyway. Furthermore, the electronic media have strong motivational qualities for children. (KH)

Addresses the concern that with neither the time needed to get together, nor a common curriculum to focus on, most teachers are left to reinvent the wheel, alone, in thousands of separate classrooms. The author offers two initiatives designed to correct the problem. (GR)

Trinity University education majors visited rural mountain schools in North Carolina, finding evidence that countered their stereotypes of the conditions of, family involvement in, and attitudes about education in rural communities. Ways to improve the educational environment through distance education and reduction of inequities were suggested.…

This is a summary of the final report of the Urban High School Reform Initiative, a Federal effort designed (1) to review the educational and related needs of large city high school students, (2) explore the Federal role in urban secondary education, and (3) develop recommendations for a more effective Federal response to continuing needs of these…

Discusses Ethiopia's expanding educational system. Reports on such factors as the influence of socialism on education, the emergence of female education, language barriers in the classroom, adult literacy initiatives, community participation, and improved teacher preparation. (BSR)

The authors question tensions between policymakers and local educational institutions and suggest that there are substantial gaps between the intentions and actual consequences of implemented policies concerning educational reform. They argue for cooperative strategies between federal, state, and local authorities that attempt to balance…

Proposes model, based on Kuhn's paradigmatic epistemology, for employing the scientific method in education. Model acknowledges that all scientific knowledge is social knowledge derived through social processes and allows for all scientific truths to be subjected to constant scrutiny and reviews by both practitioners and scientists. (CMG)

The nation's governors have put high school reform at the top of their agendas, charging their association--the National Governors Association--with energizing a multi-year effort to overhaul high school education. Across the country, reformers are stepping forward with new high school "designs" aimed at preparing students for the challenges of…

The road to improvement has taken the staff of a high-poverty urban school from isolation to collaboration. The innovations that were developed based on the basis of the collective analysis of school wide requirements have helped the John Williams Elementary School No. 5 in Rochester, New York, to create pathways to excellence and become a…

Commissioned by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), this monograph presents the highlights of the history of organized efforts to improve education for journalism in the United States and to stimulate studies in the field of mass communication. Following brief biographies of the AEJMC founding fathers,…