The OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) provides a framework in which over 80 countries collaborate to build advanced global metrics to assess the knowledge, skills and character attributes of the students. The design of assessments poses major conceptual and technical challenges, as successful learning. Beyond a sound…

The future of Bahrain's economy and the prosperity of its citizens are, like elsewhere in the world, strongly correlated with ICT integration in almost every life aspect (Anderson 2010). ICT integration depends heavily on digital literacy, which is the ability to make use of ICT in learning and work activities (Erstad in "Education and…

There is growing potential for the development of practitioner-based doctor of education (EdD) programs as potential students in the field recognize that they do not need to leave their current work positions to obtain a doctorate particularly if it enhances their work. This article chronicles 1 university's process in developing an innovative…

This article describes and reflects upon efforts to generate greater support for media literacy and critical thinking within the strategies and programs of the Federal government in the early 1990s to about 2005 primarily among agencies with an interest in youth substance abuse prevention. Beginning with their personal reflections on discovering…

Sometimes, program evaluations report no difference in outcomes between persons given a program and those not given the program. Is this because the program does not work, or because it was poorly implemented? Achieving high quality program implementation is critical to achieving anticipated outcomes, and researchers have made considerable…

The concept of "knowledge brokerage" focuses on promoting the integration of the best available evidence into policy and practice-related decisions. In this study, emphasis is put on the knowledge brokerage role of cities. The study aims at finding similarities and differences in existing educational knowledge brokerage initiatives, at…

We describe the literacy issues facing young deaf and hard of hearing (DHH) learners in Taiwan who are learning both a logographic and an alphabetic script. We describe the contextual factors that surround their reading and writing processes such as island demographics, reading achievement levels, and background language learning variables…

Despite being minority languages like many others, sign languages have traditionally remained absent from the agendas of policy makers and language planning and policies. In the past two decades, though, this situation has started to change at different paces and to different degrees in several countries. In this article, the author describes the…

Interdistrict open enrollment is the nation's largest and most widespread school choice program, but our knowledge of these programs is limited. Drawing on 5 years of student-level data from the universe of public school attendees in Colorado, we perform a three-stage analysis to examine the dynamics of student participation in the state's…

Australia is in the process of implementing a national geography curriculum to replace the separate state and territory curriculums. The paper describes the process of curriculum development, and identifies the different groups that were involved. These included the board and staff of the national curriculum authority, geography teachers across…

This article reviews the literature base on class size reduction and proposes a new analytic framework that we believe provides practically useful explanations of how primary class size reduction works. It presents descriptions of classroom practice and grounded explanations for how class size reduction affects educational core activities by…

In 2006, a (new) German standard for test reviewing was passed (Testkuratorium, 2006). There was already a European standard in place (European Federation of Psychologists' Associations, 2008). This article presents the German standard for test reviewing and explains how the German test review system was derived from demands in the German standard…

This study followed the comparative research mode of description, interpretation, juxtaposition and comparison. Based on the literatures and data collected on the topic, the paper compared and analyzed the past, present and future of APTHS (academic proficiency test for high schools) in the two countries. Some contemplations on the common issues…

Induction is a term that describes the support a new teacher receives. Teacher induction begins when a new teacher enters the workforce, and it may extend throughout the next several years of teaching. Induction represents a phase in development that focuses on new teachers' concerns and problems of practice. It also serves as a catalyst for new…

Schools of social work are mandated to train students for policy practice. A new instructional approach is needed so that social workers skillfully engage in policy change to address the growing economic, social, and cultural problems that affect our clients. This article presents the Practicing Policy, Pursuing Change, and Promoting Social…