In August 2010, the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) received a grant of more than $25 million from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program for a five-year study to validate its Leadership Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) model in three very diverse regions of the United States: rural North…

This paper describes validity of quality improvement system (QIS) performance measures and longitudinal change over four years in Oklahoma 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) programs. In general, our findings indicate that the Oklahoma Afterschool Improvement Process is performing in accordance with its purposes: using accurate…

This study is a critical discourse analysis of the New Jersey Opt-Out Movement. In 2015, and in response to the increasing standardization of US public school instruction, and over-use of high-stakes testing, NJ parents began to refuse to allow their children to take a key end-of-the year exam, the PARCC. We employ the concepts of master and…

Income inequality has soared in the United States over the past half century. Has educational inequality increased alongside, in lockstep? Despite the topic's importance, surprisingly little scholarship has focused on long-term changes in the size of the achievement gap between students from higher and lower socioeconomic backgrounds. The authors'…

This paper focuses on the manner in which governance structure of higher education is re-organized under neoliberalism. It highlights how states have centralized their powers in their relationships with the universities through performance-based accountability; research funding mechanisms; quality assurance; and various administrative mechanisms.…

The early childhood professionals recognize the limitations of conventional testing with young children. This recognition has given rise to Authentic Assessment, now recognized officially as best practice by the major professional organizations. However, no national studies have been conducted to document the comparative qualities of either…

The objective of the exercise described here is for students to be able to recognize Habermas's public sphere theory and analyze public deliberation occurring within the online public sphere. After completing this unit activity, students will also be able to distinguish between civil and uncivil comments that people use in online forums.…

Self-report is currently used as an indicator of professional practice in a variety of fields, including medicine and education. Important to consider, therefore, is the ability of self-report to accurately capture professional practice. This study investigated how well professionals' self-reports of behavior agreed with an expert observer's…

This research aimed to explore the relation between syntactic awareness and writing composition in 129 Hong Kong Chinese children. These children were from a ten-year longitudinal project. At each year, a number of measures were administered. The 129 children's data of nonverbal reasoning at age 4, phonological awareness, morphological awareness,…

The author uses data from two Principles of Microeconomics courses to examine differences in characteristics and performance of online versus face-to-face students. The analysis indicates that even in a traditional institution, the two delivery modes may be serving students with distinctly different backgrounds and characteristics. In terms of…

This study reports on Residency I, the first semester of a yearlong residency that utilizes problem-based learning scenarios, combined with field work, that covers both content and context and is meant to positively impact teacher candidates' self-efficacy as well as their actual efficacy as measured by scores on the edTPA. This quantitative…

A new vision of science learning described in the "Next Generation Science Standards"--particularly the science and engineering practices and their integration with content--pose significant challenges for large-scale assessment. This article explores what might be learned from advances in large-scale science assessment and…

The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of micro-teaching technique in delivering the lesson to children whose first language is not English. It involved three first year English language teachers who have been teaching in elementary public schools for one year, a group of student teachers who are in their senior academic year…

The past 15 years have seen a wealth of civic education initiatives. States have passed supportive laws, a blue-ribbon commission has identified best practices, and new programs are blossoming. Some emphasize knowing, and others emphasize doing; some are geared to academic learning about government and politics, while others emphasize…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using a Competency-based Achievement System (CBAS) (a formative tool) in the practice ready assessment (PRA) of internationally-trained physicians seeking licensure to practice in Canada (summative assessment). The study was a retrospective analysis of over 5,000 FieldNotes completed…