Scores are the most visible and widely used products of a testing program. The choice of score scale has implications for test specifications, equating, and test reliability and validity, as well as for test interpretation. At the same time, the score scale should be viewed as infrastructure likely to require repair at some point. In this report…

What happens behind classroom doors--the content, experiences, and interactions with teachers that students encounter--is the "sine qua non" of student classroom learning. But everyone's inventory of instructional practices across different subjects and grades is limited; and the same can be said about everyone's knowledge of what makes for good…

Created in 2007, the Teaching Fellowship builds on Woodrow Wilson's sixty-five-year commitment to strengthen American education by bringing talented individuals into education careers. The Woodrow Wilson Teaching Fellowship seeks both to recruit and prepare new teachers with outstanding records of achievement and to transform the college and…

This article employs Bourdieu's concept of capital to understand how state officials and teacher educators in New Jersey used three different forms of capital--economic, social, and cultural--in their struggle to shape the undergraduate teacher preparation and the first state sponsored alternative route program to teacher certification. Based on…

Service learning is often used in teacher education as a way to challenge social bias and provide teacher candidates with skills needed to work in partnership with diverse families. Although some literature suggests that service learning could reinforce cultural bias, there is little documentation. In a study of 21 early childhood teacher…

This article describes Washington State's Student Achievement Initiative, an accountability system implemented in 2005-06 that measures students' gains in college readiness, college credits earned, and degree or certificate completion. The goal of the initiative is to increase educational attainment by focusing on the critical momentum points…

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…

A team of researchers said in a provocative new study that the National Board of Professional Teaching Standards ought to take into account student-learning gains in deciding which teachers are skilled enough to merit receiving its advanced teaching credential. Created in 1987, the board has conferred its credential on nearly 64,000 teachers, and…

In the world of international education, few subjects are as controversial as the use of paid recruiting agents. Paying the agents, particularly on commission, is often viewed as unseemly, if not downright unethical. But a new organization, the American International Recruitment Council, hopes to change that attitude. The council wants to develop…

In recent years, portfolios in paper or digital form have become a requirement for teachers. Many university teacher education programs throughout the United States, including music education, require a portfolio as a graduation requirement. For practicing teachers interested in National Board Certification, a portfolio is part of the assessment…

Using a communities-of-practice framework, this 2-year qualitative study centered on five elementary teachers the year following their participation in the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification process. Focused on teachers' appropriation of the Board's standards and portfolio as conceptual tools related to literacy…

The lack of resources in a country experiencing decades of successive wars, blockade, administrative corruption, and poor governance led to deteriorated standards throughout medical education. Although professional certification programs exist, continuing medical education accreditation and credit systems are required to monitor and certify the…

The aging process is associated with medical conditions that can negatively affect medical fitness to drive. Traditional licensing agency methods to identify at-risk drivers have significant limitations. These include testing of visual acuity and driving tests. Recently, methods have been developed to allow for screening for cognitive decline in…

Under the policy of direct certification for free school meals, school districts use information shared by state agencies about household eligibility for means-tested programs in the state in order to determine the potential eligibility for free meals of students enrolled in the district. This information allows districts to automatically approve…

Purpose: This research examined whether the removal of certification and other requirements led to larger or more diverse applicant pools for superintendent positions in Michigan. Michigan has not had any degree or certification requirements for educational administrators for many years and provided an empirical test of whether deregulation…