Discusses practical strategies reading teachers may employ in dealing with state-mandated minimal reading requirements. Includes cautions and suggestions for dealing with test limitations. (TJ)

Critiques the first two volumes of E.D. Hirsch, Jr.'s Core Knowledge Series, "What Your 1st Grader Needs to Know" and "What Your 2nd Grader Needs to Know" (Doubleday, 1991), for thin coverage of core curriculum fundamentals, highly condensed format, and unbalanced content. Parents should realize there is no substitute for a…

Outlines a training model designed to help senior technologists ensure that the newly hired technologists in the clinical molecular pathology laboratory achieve the minimum level of knowledge needed to perform and progress on the job. (Author)

Looks at the differences in quality in competency studies and cautions that trainers should be sure that the competencies identified are, in fact, valid and useful. Offers guidelines for identifying and describing competencies that are important to employees in a specific organization. (JOW)

In a Delphi study 23 experts identified the need for competence in computer technologies of business education teachers. Competencies were grouped into five categories: computer hardware, software, programming, computer integration, and general computer knowledge. (Contains 28 references.) (JOW)

Discusses the new key skills qualification which will provide more opportunity for all post-16 students to demonstrate their key skills. (Author/CCM)

A key Dutch policy has been enabling people to acquire minimum competencies for labor market entry and continued employment. However, policy should not be interpreted rigidly. Lack of initial qualifications is not necessarily related to early school leaving, and initial competence should include the foundation for lifelong learning. (SK)

The 2006 Education Act provided an entitlement for all 14 year-olds to take a specialist diploma from 2013. Despite concerns of many educationalists and politicians, the first diplomas will begin in September 2008. New Labour claims that the diplomas are innovative and challenging; however, this article argues that they exhibit many of the…

This article presents results from a longitudinal study following a cohort of medical students. Semistructured interviews are conducted every year, in which the students tell about their experiences learning medicine, their daily life, and their social activities in relation to university. The aim of the study is to analyze how medical students…

The theoretical underpinnings of student-centred learning suggest motivation to be an integral component. However, lack of clarification of what is involved in motivation in education often results in unchallenged assumptions that fail to recognise that what motivates some students may alienate others. This case study, using socio-cognitive…

A major review of vocational education and training has occurred across the United Kingdom since 1986. Employment requirements are being identified in the form of occupational standards that provide the foundation for the new system of vocational qualifications, National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). Standards describe what people need to be…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) Task Force on Higher Education and the Schools calls for states "to consider the feasibility of developing a regional assessment of teacher selection techniques" (SREB, 1981). This recommendation reflects concerns about the need for: (1) more states to develop new teacher certification tests,…

Ribault (Florida) Senior High School has reported a dramatic increase in student achievement levels since implementing a comprehensive college preparation curriculum. Among the program changes that contributed to those gains are: (1) the establishment and consistent enforcement of a strong discipline program, including rules for student conduct, a…

This document was prepared to assist teachers in Virginia in three ways: (1) by assessing student achievement on the competencies adopted by the State Board of Education; (2) by diagnosing student errors in mathematics; and (3) by prescribing instructional activities designed to promote student mastery of skills assessed in the competency program.…

This newsletter is part of an effort to improve mastery of the Texas Educational Assessment of Minimum Skills (TEAMS). Responses of teachers to a survey in the Spring of 1987 concerning their beliefs and facts about the TEAMS are reported, along with clarifying facts about this criterion referenced test. Teaching to the TEAMS is advisable because…