The Alabama Department of Education presents "Quick Facts," an annual snapshot of general state statistics, facts about public schools, the State Board of Education, and general financial data. The data presented in this report covers the school year 2013-2014.

This professional paper builds on the work of TESOL's issue briefs, "Implementing the Common Core State Standards for English Learners: The Changing Role of the ESL Teacher" (February 2013) and Overview of the Common Core State Standards Initiatives for ELLs (March, 2013). It discusses the shifting landscape surrounding the new Common…

Systematic reviews are used to inform practice, and develop guidelines and protocols. A questionnaire to quantify the risk of bias in systematic reviews, the review paper assessment (RPA) tool, was developed and tested. A search of electronic databases provided a data set of review articles that were then independently reviewed by two assessors…

This paper reports on an analysis of how school inspection in Sweden -- its aims, directions and procedures -- is portrayed in texts produced by the responsible national authorities. The study involves a textual analysis of official annual accounts and plans (texts directed to the government, municipalities, schools and the public) produced by the…

This annual report updates the tuition and fee prices published by all of the public higher education institutions in the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) member states. It is the product of an annual survey administered to the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO) offices in each state, with a couple of…

Telecommunication offers a low cost solution to increasing client and counselor contact during the vocational rehabilitation (VR) process, particularly for clients at a distance from the VR office. Despite the advantage telecommunication provides, however, counselors report using email with fewer rural as compared to urban clients. In part, this…

This paper assesses the origins, conclusions and consequences of the Fleming Committee, which considered the relationship between Britain's leading independent boarding schools and the state. In 1944, the committee recommended one-quarter of the places at these schools should be assigned to a national bursary scheme for children who might benefit…

Not only has the number of scholarly journals worldwide increased substantially in recent years but also the number of articles published in them. However, closer examination reveals that the percentage of articles actually published has remained in the region of 25%. This implies that much of researchers' time and energy has been wasted because…

The Assessment Skills and Knowledge (ASK) standards seek to articulate the areas of content knowledge, skill and dispositions that student affairs professionals need in order to perform as practitioner-scholars to assess the degree to which students are mastering the learning and development outcomes the professionals intend. Consistent with…

Grades should reflect and help motivate learning. This book illustrates ways teachers can shift their practices to conduct accurate, constructive assessments that not only maintain the integrity of essential education objectives, but also motivate students and enhance learning. Through detailed strategies, educators will learn how to grade…

This paper begins by discussing the results of two studies recently conducted in Australia. According to the two studies, taking a gap year between high school and college may help students complete a degree once they return to school. The gap year can involve such activities as travel, service learning, or work. Then, the paper presents links to…

There has been almost no investigation of reports produced by interdisciplinary teams. Feedback was obtained from 30 teachers regarding a typical (but fictional) report written by the Children's Assessment Team at Flinders Medical Centre. Quantitative and thematic analysis revealed that the same features that contribute to the effectiveness of a…

Here, we describe a human physiology laboratory class measuring changes in autonomic function over time in response to atropine. Students use themselves as subjects, generating ownership and self-interest in the learning as well as directly experiencing the active link between physiology and pharmacology in people. The class is designed to…

The article looks at two important documents in the context of education policy in Ireland: the Higher Education Authority's "Strategic Plan 2008-2010" and the Government's report, "Building Ireland's Smart Economy." It demonstrates how the entrepreneurial student is fabricated out of particular truths told about the present…

This paper grew out of a presentation at the "Research for LIS Practitioners Workshop" organised by the ALIA Research Committees and held at the State Library of New South Wales. The workshop was a satellite event of the Information Online Conference. The goal of the workshop was to encourage practitioner research and publication in the…