If your child attends a Maryland public school, you may already be aware that he or she will take a test called the Maryland School Assessment--MSA for short. But what is the Maryland School Assessment, and how can you help your child prepare for it? What subjects will the test cover, and what do the questions look like? This publication answers…

"Teachers Teaching Teachers" ("T3") focuses on coaches' roles in the professional development of teachers. Each issue also explores the challenges and rewards that teacher leaders encounter. This issue includes: (1) Learning Cycle Spins Individuals into a Team (Valerie von Frank); (2) NSDC Tool: The Professional Teaching and Learning Cycle; (3)…

A survey of online fundraising by the "Chronicle of Philanthropy" found that 192 nonprofit organizations raised $1.1 billion online in 2007 and $1.4 billion in 2008. Given this trend, to what extent are educational institutions using and succeeding with online fundraising? Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) explored this…

This commentary addresses the Arizona Supreme Court's legal reasoning in "Cain v. Horne," which struck down two voucher programs for special needs children pursuant to one of Arizona's Blaine Amendments and explains that the court both failed to apply a straightforward textual analysis and ignored the analytical framework its prior…

Clinical psychology practices initially grew through the use of case studies, uncontrolled trials, and eventually through randomized controlled trials (RCTs). The use of a wait-list control group is standard practice in such trials of treatment regimens for psychopathological conditions. However, as knowledge advances regarding the successful…

Language tests in immigration contexts typically perform a gate-keeping role in decisions about whether an applicant should be granted residence or citizenship in a new country. In refugee contexts, so-called language tests or language analyses also play a gate-keeping role, but a more ambitious one; namely that of providing answers to questions…

This article is a response to the growing criticisms of the British Educational Research Association (BERA) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) ethical guidelines on anonymity and pseudonymity as default positions for participants in qualitative educational research. It discusses and responds to those criticisms under four…

This review article surveys recent developments and validation activities related to four large-scale tests of L2 English ability: the iBT TOEFL, the IELTS, the FCE, and the TOEIC. In addition to describing recent changes to these tests, the paper reports on validation activities that were conducted on the measures. The results of this research…

College faculties often use votes of "no confidence" to try to push out the leaders of their institutions. Many do so, however, without giving much thought to what such a vote actually means, whether they are using it appropriately, or how it will affect their campus--and their own future. Mae Kuykendall, a professor of law at Michigan State…

Getting in shape and staying in shape is not easy for anyone, but for the millions of Americans with disabilities, it is a significant challenge. An astonishing 56 percent of individuals with disabilities get no physical activity at all, according to a report conducted by Healthy People 2010. By utilizing an American fixture like gyms, many people…

During the past 30 years, the author has worked with children and young adults from ages 3 to 18 (not to mention teachers, families, administrators, lecturers, and visiting authors), and she has read a lot of books. Because there are so many kids' books being published these days, she is not expecting total perfection. Still, there are many things…

In his 2004 article "How was a dead butler killed: The way English national strategies maim grammatical parts" published in "Language and Education" 18, no. 1, Wasyl Cajkler calls for a review of grammar advice to teachers in the UK National Literacy Strategy (NLS) materials. His evidence demonstrates clearly that NLS grammar…

In this article, the author provides an overview of and her reflections on the new American Association of School Librarians (AASL) program guidelines, "Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs" (2009). At just sixty-four pages, this publication is easy to browse and ready for investigation. As to be expected from…

This paper reviews New Labor priority educational policies since 1997 that have attempted to break the link between poverty and low educational achievement in England. It does so by examining these policy priorities against a mapping framework developed by the author for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation's Education and Poverty programme. This…

New generation antipsychotic (NGA) drugs introduced to the US market after clozapine (aripiprazole, olanzapine, paliperidone, quetiapine, risperidone, and ziprasidone) are frequently used in individuals with intellectual disabilities (ID). However, there is very limited research to fully establish evidence-based or personalized medicine approaches…