A review of the research, state legislative mandates, and education department requirements (Levin, 2005; Hess & Kelly, 2005; Marzano, Water, & McNulty, 2005; N.C. House Bill 536, 2007) shows different demands for the redesign of principal licensure programs. Program redesign always has some sort of catalyst. However, just because there is…

Many schools and universities want the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED certification for their facilities, but they are concerned about cost. This certification is tangible evidence that a facility is designed to conserve resources and use energy more efficiently. "Low-cost/no-cost" upgrades can be worked into a capital plan that provides a 3-…

The referee system in scholarly publishing offers many benefits and also carries with it attendant problems. The problems need to be addressed. Referees are arguably the linchpins of academic scholarship: they do the heavy lifting for editors, they provide editors with vicarious expertise, and they monitor the gateway to publication and thus to…

Despite recent critical analyses of the nature and impacts of social and environmental certification, the increasingly complex landscape of voluntary, industry and third-party codes and certification processes that have emerged in specific sectors is poorly understood. In particular, little is known about the potential threats posed by an…

In a longitudinal, cross-disciplinary study of teachers' experiences with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certification process in Georgia, discourse related to the notion of performance surfaced in the data in a variety of ways. A poststructural perspective suggests an explanation for how teacher performances are…

Until recently, youth practitioners learned how to support team building, maximize the participation of diverse groups of youth, and measure the desired effects of new strategies through experience, ingenuity, mentoring, and an occasional workshop. As research amasses about the critical role of staff quality in predicting positive outcomes for…

Adult learning practices that incorporate experiential learning and playfulness promise greater learner involvement and engagement, produce better results than "teaching-to-the-test" lectures and presentations, and represent a major opportunity to improve adult learning. The author developed such an adult learning activity for an adult Safe…

This descriptive, exploratory study focused on how institutions of higher education have used the United States Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED[R]) Green Building Rating system. It employed statistical methods to assess which types of universities have used LEED, what ratings they earned, and…

Students who are deaf or hard of hearing and beginning their college years sometimes encounter challenges that, lacking special support, may result in their dropping out of school without any form of certification. Estimates for these students show that between two-thirds and three-quarters of those who begin their studies never graduate. From the…

Parents, practitioners, and policymakers agree that the key to improving public education in America is placing highly skilled and effective teachers in all classrooms. Yet the nation still lacks a practical set of standards and assessments that can guarantee that teachers, particularly new teachers, are well prepared and ready to teach. This…

We examine how well schools of social work prepare students to work with people with developmental disabilities (DD). Using websites of 50 U.S. schools of social work, we examine their curricula to determine the number and nature of disability studies courses. We examine tenure-line faculty to identify potential for current staff to expand DD…

The article provides a history of efforts to develop a credentialing or certification process for forensic interviewers and reviews the multitiered credentialing process offered by the National Association of Certified Child Forensic Interviewers. The authors argue the benefits of a credentialing process for forensic interviewers and respond to…

The "2003 National Science Teachers Association Standards for Science Teacher Preparation" (NSTA-SSTP) were developed to provide guidelines and expectations for science teacher preparation programs. This article is the fourth in a special "JSTE" series on accreditation written to assist science teacher educators in meeting the "NSTA-SSTP". In this…

This paper examines the changing landscape of the professionalisation of sports coaching and is presented in response to the dearth of empirical research and peer-reviewed literature existing within the field. This absence or "lack" has, in turn, created a political context in which the discourses that inhabit transitions towards…

During the decades around the beginning of the twentieth century, public universities in the United States commonly employed a "certificate system" to establish eligibility for undergraduate admittance. "Certification" meant that between 1877 and 1931 representatives of the University of Wisconsin inspected high schools and had…