More than 20 years ago, A Nation At Risk warned that "a rising tide of mediocrity" threatened the U.S. education system and that the United States would be unable to effectively compete with other economies because of a scarcity of graduates in science and technology. In 2001, No Child Left Behind reiterated that message, pushing through…

Critical thinking enjoys almost universal support, except when applied to controversial topics. Yet it is these topics that are often the most effective initiators of critical thinking exercises that improve students' rational approaches to challenging problems. The use of controversial issues to promote critical thinking requires an institutional…

In this chapter, the author attempts to help the reader see beyond the current state of affairs in terms of the relationship between classroom assessment and accountability and to consider some wider perspectives and possibilities. Hopefully, this will also help the reader step into the spirit of the discussion that is inherent in the chapters…

No one can dispute that tests should measure important content, and for many (but not all) purposes, tests should be aligned with curricular goals. Thus in many cases, alignment is clearly better than the alternative, and nothing that follows here argues otherwise. Unfortunately, however, this does not imply that alignment is sufficient protection…

Campus teaching is not independent of campus politics. Quality of teaching is partly a function of who cares. The complexity of the disciplines taught is not justification for indifference to the needs of students--and the needs of the public, and the state, and the campus administrative offices, and the instructors. Teaching is not merely a…

In 2002, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act. In addition to providing additional funding for schools and encouraging local autonomy, the new law focuses on accountability in an attempt to close the achievement gap for all students, leaving no child behind. Perhaps the most striking manifestation of Bush's new law is the…

This article focuses on global trends in education policy during the current epoch of imperializing, militaristic, neo-liberal global capital. It is based on an analysis that global capital, in the form of dominant US multinational capital, together with its client governments, uses the repressive and ideological apparatuses of the state to…

With the performance of students, teachers, and schools defining success under current standards-based accountability policies (e.g. Chicago Public Schools (Note 1); "No Child Left Behind Act," (United States Department of Education, 2002)), school districts are implementing various forms of intervention programs as a means to improve…

While Government commitments to supporting instruction in languages other than English have largely been honoured, bilingual education as a form of learning has not been widespread. Acknowledging the benefits of learning a language other than English, the most recent Australian national languages policy statement nonetheless makes no mention of…

Program accountability is increasingly important in teacher education. Yet, program accountability often implies reporting quantitative data in an easy-to-understand visual format. Such data can lack validity when numbers are small and they may confuse issues of candidate performance with candidate understanding. In this study, four teacher…

It has long been assumed that schools which were "effective" with respect to one set of outcomes (usually academic performance) were generally more "effective" in relation to others. This article reviews the last three decades of British evidence across a range of affective, social and other non-cognitive outcomes including:…

IDEA and NCLB support the case for including English language learners with disabilities in standards-based reform and school accountability efforts. Few states make statewide data on the participation and performance of English language learners with disabilities publicly available. Therefore, district assessment data on English language learners…

This qualitative study examines mentors' interpretations of their practice as revealed through writing and discussing their cases in a university postgraduate course in Israel. The data were examined for emergent features of the practice of in-service mentoring in the Jewish and Arab sectors within the Israeli school system. Content analysis of…

In this age of greater school accountability, some the country's larger comprehensive high schools have lost their allure with the public. Because of significant achievement gaps between White and minority students, many of these schools have been blamed for not meeting the needs of poor and disadvantaged students. Detractors point out that these…

Although the premise of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is to improve schools by holding them accountable for student achievement the way a company is held accountable for the bottom line, as a strategy for school improvement it overlooks one simple truth: The business of public schools is not simply promoting student achievement. The…