"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Integrated Data Systems Link Schools and Communities: Researchers Combine School and Non-School Data to Inform Interventions and Policy (Patti Hartigan);…

The purpose of this study was to assess if there was a relationship between sixth, seventh, and eighth grade student's level of mastery of basic math facts and their mathematical scaled score from a standardized test, whether computer assisted instruction (CAI) software improved seventh grade students' ability to master their basic math…

With illiteracy in the United States at a staggering rate, school districts are spending more and more instructional dollars searching for intervention programs to address students' reading deficits. While, in the past, school districts have received funds through various state funding sources, the financial forecast for school districts is no…

Teaching a speech communication course in typical HBCUs (historically black colleges and universities) comes with many issues, because the application of technology in some minority institutions differs. The levels of acceptability as well as affordability are also core issues that affect application. Using technology in the classroom means many…

Recent developments in the field of genomics will impact the daily practice of biology teachers who teach genetics in secondary education. This study reports on the first results of a research project aimed at enhancing biology teacher knowledge for teaching genetics in the context of genetic testing. The increasing body of scientific knowledge…

The purpose of this paper is to present the preliminary study findings from an ongoing PhD study. In this paper, the researcher presents the preliminary study that was carried out with a number of schools in England and Northern Cyprus in order to identify the background or big pictures of each country in terms of available ICT tools that are…

This study discussed how the Department of Teacher Education, University of Ibadan utilized Web-Quest as a motivating and creative tool to teach a compulsory and large pre-service teachers' Course (TEE 304) The study also investigated the attitude and perception of pre-service teachers to the use of Web-Quest. The results showed that the sample…

This article describes the design, implementation, and assessment of four hands-on activities in an introductory college statistics course. In the activities, students investigated the ideas of the central limit theorem, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. Five assessments were administered to the students, one at the beginning and end…

The Internet has recently encouraged the society to convert almost all its needs to electronic resources such as e-libraries, e-cultures, e-entertainment as well as e-learning, which has become a radical idea to increase the effectiveness of learning services in most schools, colleges and universities. E-learning can not be completely featured and…

This dissertation was designed to explore the impact of the identified responsibilities of the principal, as an instructional leader, within the professional development model of Reading First. Specifically, the research focused on the principals' use of the Observation and Constructive Feedback Processes as well as five specifically defined…

While there is consensus that institutions need to represent their educational effectiveness through documentation of student learning, the higher education community is divided between those who support national standardized tests to compare institutions' educational effectiveness, and those who believe that valid assessment of student…

Animated models explicating how a problem is solved and why a particular method is chosen are expected to be effective learning tools for novices, especially when abstract cognitive processes or concepts are involved. Cognitive load theory was used to investigate how learners could be stimulated to engage in genuine learning activities. It was…

Recent legislation such as No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 has made significant changes in how all students are assessed. Because scores on state and district tests have important implications for students, parents, and school personnel, teachers and students should approach testing with…

Many undergraduate students have difficulty writing mathematical proofs even though this skill is important for the development of future teachers and those who may be involved in instruction or training as a graduate student or supervisor. In addition, research indicates that mathematics majors and secondary education mathematics majors possess…

University studies in Greece are characterised by a symptom usually described as "prolonged student status". This refers to students who prolong the period of their studies beyond the expected length for degrees, sometimes by many years. This article, as well as recording the distribution of the duration of studies in a public…