Educational reform in the United States is perpetually evolving. Much of the recent reforms have concentrated on high-stakes testing and assessment, but a parallel effort has been emerging in the field of vocational and career education. Prompted partly by federal legislation--most recently by the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act…

This article describes a unique approach to developing and delivering the curriculum for an experimental program that prepares STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) graduates for teaching in high-needs secondary schools. The context for the collaborative design--including the charge, personnel, and purpose of the program--is…

This report contains the findings of the Oregon Applied Academics research and development project which spanned three academic years from 2010 through 2013. The overall purpose of the project was to develop and implement a technical math course that would meet graduation requirements and improve student performance. The State of Oregon has been…

In this critical program profile, the authors provide an analysis of the historical, political, theoretical, and practical circumstances that influenced the development of Oakland University's undergraduate major in writing and rhetoric. Through an analysis of the developmental process and the major itself, this article explores many separate, yet…

The dramatic growth of online education over the past two decades is requiring colleges to make a shift from fragmented approaches to program planning and implementation towards a framework integrating both into a coherent support system. This article provides an overview of an emerging holistic framework for planning and implementation of online…

Whether you're an old hand at professional learning communities (PLC) or just starting out, you know that PLCs don't succeed on their own. They need a supportive environment, an effective structure and process, and a plan for study, sharing, analysis, and action. Here's a book that ensures you provide your PLC all that and more. Drawing from their…

In this paper, the authors describe a case of measuring implementation fidelity within an evaluation of Math Recovery (MR), a pullout tutoring program for low-achieving first-graders. They use this case to address two aspects of implementation fidelity studies: (1) their feasibility with respect to unscripted interventions, and (2) their…

The Day of Silence is the largest single student-led action towards creating safer schools for all, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. From the first-ever Day of Silence at the University of Virginia in 1996, to the organizing efforts in over 8,000 middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across…

The Australian Vocational Education and Training Management Information Statistical Standard (AVETMISS) for vocational education and training (VET) providers (referred to as "the Standard") is currently being reviewed by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER). The Standard is the framework that underpins the…

In 1995, Virginia began a broad educational reform program that resulted in revised, rigorous content standards, the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL), in the content areas of English, mathematics, science, and history and social science. These grade-by-grade and course-based standards were developed over 14 months with revision teams including…

This article presents an analysis of two major reports discussing the current crisis in STEM education. Both the National Science Board (NSB) and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) reported alarming facts and figures about the United States' position in the global knowledge economy. The U.S. is no longer…

Recent advances in technology are transforming our lives, but in many cases they are also limiting the way children are exposed to local communities and physical spaces. Technology can help young people actively connect with their neighborhoods, but doing that requires different methods and tools from the ones typically available in schools,…

The concept of experiential learning, in one form or another, has been around a long time, some would say going back to Confucius. More recently, however, within the United States it was put into practice in a very aggressive form, cooperative education, created by Herman Schneider and initiated at the University of Cincinnati (UC) in 1906.…

Support for the use of local languages for learning and communication is currently in fashion among national policy-makers in Africa. This position has been promoted by UNESCO and other local-language advocates for years; more recently it is being seen favourably by a range of influential international institutions. However, even positive language…

National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD) is a nationally celebrated event that promotes sport and physical activity opportunities for girls and women. Over 1,500 events and activities are held annually in all 50 states to celebrate and promote female participation in sport. This article introduces the sport/activity-clinic model of the NGWSD…