Examines the measurement of class size and a related measure, the student-teacher ratio, and considers the variations across states in class size and student-teacher ratios. Student-teacher teacher ratios are consistently lower than average class size because class-size figures do not reflect the use of specialized teachers or those who work in…

Examines the coverage, content, and customers of higher education performance reports, along with their purposes, priorities, initiation methods, and emerging changes in their style and substance. (EV)

Reviews the prospects, problems, and possibilities of performance reporting in higher education and discusses two fundamental flaws in performance reporting. (EV)

Drawing on British data, this article discusses issues involved in analyzing educational indicator data. Gross productivity, new productivity, and inequality are discussed as types of indicators that describe interdistrict variation in Great Britain. Recommendations are made regarding features of an educational assessment that would be necessary…

In response to Alberta's Educational Quality Indicators initiative, Lethbridge Catholic Schools developed and validated a taxonomy of student affective behaviors that reflect learning or development in the areas of self-esteem, interpersonal relationships, world awareness, motivation, and spiritual life. Measures developed include classroom…

Reviews and critiques some of the more prominent school-safety databases. Develops a framework for collecting safe-schools indicators by merging the safe-school framework of the National Education Association with a social-indicators model. Provides recommendations for annual data collection, publication, and dissemination. (SLD)

In early December 2005, the School District of Philadelphia announced that, for the fourth consecutive year, students showed measurable improvement on standardized, nationally normed TerraNova tests. The school's good performance was induced by a well managed instructional program that includes data-driven instruction and decision-making…

This paper investigates European Union (EU) education and training policies in the light of the evolving Lisbon agenda on improving the competitiveness of the EU. It examines the ways in which EU policies have developed over time, focusing on their legal basis, underlying principles, main forms of implementation and their impact on national…

The United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD) 2005-2014 provides a significant platform to enhance the profile of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) in formal and informal learning spaces and ultimately to assist in transforming our future into a more sustainable one. The article presents a brief summary of…

Victoria has just emerged from 10 years where Geography has been one of three strands in the key learning area of Studies of Society and Environment (SOSE). The overarching framework emerged from an attempt to develop a national curriculum. Whilst the national curriculum was rejected by Australian state and territories who each hold legislative…

Geography as a discipline has a long and healthy history in South Australia. Due to the passion of individual educators and the activities of the Geography Teachers Association of South Australia (GTASA) since its foundation in 1936, South Australia has experienced ongoing curriculum development and indeed innovation in the geographical studies in…

The Northern Territory is a semi-autonomous region in the north of Australia. It is one of three Territories and six States that constitute the Commonwealth of Australia. The mainland States and Territories all maintain separate education systems, responsible to the Minister for Education in each State or Territory. In the Northern Territory's…

The Australian Geography Teachers' Association (AGTA) seeks to: (1) foster the teaching and learning of geography in Australian schools and enhance awareness of its applications in society; (2) promote and circulate the results of research into geography education; (3) maintain a professional network through which teachers of geography in…

In this paper the author examines the implementation of key performance indicators in Canadian post-secondary education institutions. More specifically he charts their implementation from the perspective of students and the effect they have on the quality and delivery of education. Key performance indicators (KPI) in Canada are administered by the…

Dropout statistics for 1986 indicated that only 55% of dropouts under age 20 were employed, only 31% of male dropouts and one in seven female dropouts were working full-time, and although dropouts were fewer than 20% of the adult population, they constituted 66% of the national prison population. Since that time, the economic costs of dropping out…