In the United States, students have historically taken large-scale assessments for many different purposes. One purpose that is shared with many other countries is a desire to monitor aggregate trends in educational attainment in core subject domains such as literacy, mathematics, and science. In this commentary, the author examines testing,…

Case studies about issues arising from education policy were written between 2003 and 2011 by doctoral candidates in Curriculum and Instruction who were career K-12 educators. Literary analysis was employed in grouping 57 case studies, which described primarily situations that occurred in school districts in one large metropolitan area, by topic…

Schooling in the U.S. is increasingly understood through the lenses of science and accountability. From the National Research Council's Scientific Research in Education (SRE) to the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), colleges and schools have faced a marked increase (or steady reinforcement) in practices which conform to principles of scientific…

Although No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has encouraged schools to become language-driven and text -oriented, Lynch's experiences have led her to conjecture that students would benefit from opportunities to transform their knowledge from words into other expressive media, to explore all avenues for teaching and learning that may have an impact on…

Defining equity within the context of a diverse, multiracial, multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural society, and one where social class strongly influences one's life chances is problematic. This chapter reexamines equity in an attempt to advance the discourse beyond the debate about strategies to close the achievement gap between White…