The General Educational Development (GED[R]) Tests, established in 1945, helped determine soldiers' high school qualifications for the workforce, as they returned home from WWII. Because many soldiers dropped out of school to join the military, achieving a certain score on the test was a way for them to demonstrate that they had attained high…

Unlike data that show that all states require credentials for special education teachers, national data indicate that only 27 states require licensure/certification/endorsement as an administrator of special education. The titles used by states to identify the local director of special education include administrator of special education, director…

Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that is written and edited solely by volunteers who have no qualifying credentials save an internet connection. With over 3.1 million articles in English, Wikipedia is indeed a formidable reference web site. From a research standpoint, Wikipedia is both the sinner and the saint: because anyone can make…

This project examined the unique needs of boys in education. Biologically and physically, male students' developmental needs differ from their female counterparts. As a result, their educational needs are typically underserved and misunderstood in the standard co-educational classroom. This misunderstanding has led to a gap in educational…

The U.S. labor market is increasingly demanding a more educated workforce. Of the 48 million job openings projected for the next eight years, 63 percent will require some postsecondary education. For many of these job openings, workers will need at least a high school diploma but not necessarily a four-year degree. To successfully increase the…

In light of the growing labor market demand for jobs requiring a minimum of subbaccalaureate credentials, this Statistics in Brief presents recent changes in subbaccalaureate awards in the decade between 1997 and 2007, using 2002 as a midpoint. It describes changes in the number and types of awards conferred, overall and within particular fields…

Good resumes, applications, and cover letters broadcast one's abilities. They tell employers how one's qualifications match a job's responsibilities. If these critical preliminaries are constructed well, one has a better chance of landing interviews--and, eventually, a job. This article provides some guidelines for creating resumes and cover…

With the large number of students with autism entering the educational system, the need for empirically supported treatment (EST) in the classroom and special education teachers with training in autism and ESTs is necessary now more than ever. This paper describes a collaborative model between 2 universities aimed at providing teacher-candidate…

In Australia there is growing interest in a national curriculum to replace the variety of matriculation credentials managed by State Education departments, ostensibly to address increasing population mobility. Meanwhile, the International Baccalaureate (IB) is attracting increasing interest and enrolments in State and private schools in Australia,…

Identities are constructed throughout people's lives. In this paper, I explored the emerging reading identities of 10 adults who were pursuing GED (General Educational Development) credentials. While part of a much larger study that included many data sources, this paper draws on interview data to examine how one group of adults positioned…

The young adults choosing careers today watched as the Twin Towers fell, as Katrina swept onto land, and as the Asian tsunami left devastation in its path. They have led protests against the genocide in Darfur. And they spent most of their teen years with the United States at war. Those same young adults--many of them college students--have seen…

Quality Rating Improvement Systems (QRIS) are now operating state-wide in 18 states. An additional 13 states are implementing QRIS in selected regions or as pilot initiatives. While highly varied in their specific features, these systems all use a set of interrelated strategies that aim to raise the quality of early care and education programs.…

We use data on statewide end-of-course tests in North Carolina to examine the relationship between teacher credentials and student achievement at the high school level. We find compelling evidence that teacher credentials, particularly licensure and certification, affects student achievement in systematic ways and that the magnitudes are large…

For most high school non-completers, the GED[R] (General Educational Development) credential is the bridge to postsecondary education, but little is known about how successfully they could make that transition and whether their participation shifts across time. The American Council on Education (ACE) has begun a three-year longitudinal study to…

This review of teaching standards in six states (California, Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas) focuses on the structure, target audience, and selected content of the standards to inform California's revision of its teaching standards. The report was developed at the request of key education agencies in California. The review…