The literature surrounding the process of curriculum innovation and change abounds with the assumption that change is a difficult, often painful and hugely complex process. It involves educational, political, national, institutional and personal issues. It challenges the very fabric of our society, and our roles not only as professionals, but as…

This report describes a program designed to decrease students' undesired behaviors. Undesired behaviors addressed include tattling, hitting, kicking, biting and pinching. A review of existing literature revealed these behaviors affected all aspects of the classroom. The sample population consisted of two sessions of at-risk pre-kindergarten and…

Project STAR (Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio) was a large-scale randomized trial of reduced class sizes in kindergarten through the third grade. Because of the scope of the experiment, it has been used in many policy discussions. For example, the California statewide class-size-reduction policy was justified, in part, by the successes of…

Reduction in the size of classes from Kindergarten to Grade 3 was a major Liberal Party campaign promise in Ontario's 2003 provincial election. It was intended to demonstrate a new government's commitment to improving public education. By the 2008-09 school year, the provincial government's goals had been achieved: over 90% of all primary classes…

Students designated as English language learners (ELL) tend to go to public schools that have low standardized test scores. However, these low levels of assessed proficiency are not solely attributable to poor achievement by ELL students. These same schools report poor achievement by other major student groups as well, and have a set of…

In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) takes a close look at the governance of the teaching profession and finds that state legislators and other state-level policymakers crafting state laws and regulation, not those bargaining at the local level, decide some of the most important rules governing the teaching profession.…

The 2012 National Survey of Science and Mathematics Education was designed to provide up-to-date information and to identify trends in the areas of teacher background and experience, curriculum and instruction, and the availability and use of instructional resources. A total of 7,752 science and mathematics teachers in schools across the United…

Debate about teacher supply, demand, retention, and attrition has been renewed in recent years by an increased concern about the reduced numbers of prospective teachers entering teacher education programs, the high attrition rate of beginning teachers, and the resulting teacher shortages. U.S. schools are experiencing teacher shortages, especially…

Information on student enrollment, staff, and graduates in the public schools is summarized, drawing on information from the State Nonfiscal Survey of Public Elementary and Secondary Education, School Year 1993-94. In the 1993-94 school year, there were 43.4 million students enrolled in public elementary and secondary schools in the 50 states and…

This review of research connected to Project Student Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) is a summary of the project's ongoing work in the form of a letter from researchers to a hypothetical colleague. Project STAR has investigated the effect on student achievement and development of small classes in the primary grades (K through 3). A research…

During the last 2 years, private school growth in the Millard Public School District (Omaha, Nebraska) exceeded that of public schools. This paper presents findings of a study that examined why parents in the Millard Public School District enrolled their children in private schools. A survey sent to 1,107 parents of private school students…

Despite great development in computer technologies being used for open learning enrollments, it is still likely that the majority of student-academic staff contact at Australian universities takes place in a lecture theater or classroom. The students' contact with any form of educational technology is more likely to be with technology in a lecture…

Delineating the content that must be covered in the secondary schools of the State of Idaho, this guide presents a secondary English language arts course of study. Although educators sometimes use the terms interchangeably, the course of study in the guide is not an instructional or curriculum guide--it prescribes what is to be taught; defines the…

In February 1994 the San Diego (California) Board of Education adopted a policy to bring about a phased reduction in class size in all district schools. Resources were allocated to initiate Phase I of this plan, which called for limited class size in grades 1 and 2 at all elementary sites to 25.5 students. A formative review was undertaken to…

Since 1984, large-scale, longitudinal, and experimental research on class size has been conducted in Tennessee. Project STAR (Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio) changed in 1989 to the Lasting Benefits Study (LBS) and Project Challenge. In 1985 almost 7,000 students in kindergarten were randomly assigned to either small classes, regular-sized…