This study analyses the impact of democratic decentralisation on the chances of socially excluded groups to participate in newly created local governance institutions--Panchayati Raj Institutions--in three Indian states. This institutional reform included a quota for the disadvantaged--women and lower castes--to ensure their effective…

The BC Council on Admissions and Transfer (BCCAT) has had a long-standing interest in measures of student mobility and the potential of the Provincial Education Number (PEN) being applied in post-secondary institutions at the applicant stage. The Admissions Committee of BCCAT included a project in its 2004/05 Work Plan to conduct a thorough…

Enhancing the early literacy of the nation's children is now a goal shared by parents, educators, and policymakers alike. Fundamental to this goal is a workforce of early childhood educators who are themselves literate: able to become well-informed about child development, to organize learning strategies for young children, to assess children's…

The primary focus of this report is to examine the effect that geographical location may have on the performance of students from schools from all parts of Australia who participated in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)/Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000). Approximately 5,477 students from 231…

In this paper we draw on data from a large mathematics competition, for the years 1987 to 2000 and use two different but closely related measures to investigate possible gender differences in performance. Our analyses revealed that small gender differences in favour of males persisted but had decreased over time. Consistent with reports from…

In this paper, it was investigated the effect of digital portfolio assessment process on the drawing and story writing performances of the 14-15 ages students. For this reason, a digital portfolio assessment rubric was prepared in order to evaluate students' drawing and story writing works. For the validity and reliability analyze was applied to…

Children's academic achievement has been shown to be influenced by many family factors, including family structure, socioeconomic status, and parenting styles. This study investigated the relationships among family structure, socioeconomic status, authoritative parenting, and children's academic achievement in a sample of 181 eighth graders in 2…

Chinese University of Hong Kong students (n=844) each rated a "good" teacher and a "poor" teacher using a Chinese translation of the Students' Evaluations of Educational Quality (SEEQ) instrument. Good teachers were rated more favorably than poor teachers on all SEEQ scales, all SEEQ items were judged to be most important by at…

Theorists have traditionally described motivation in terms of approach and avoidance tendencies. In contrast, goal orientation research has focused primarily on two approach goals: demonstrating ability (performance-approach) and developing ability (task). A scale to assess the goal of avoiding the demonstration of lack of ability…

As part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development project on international educational indicators, four networks were formed to represent different domains. This collection contains background papers that were prepared to deal with some of the fundamental questions about process indicators examined by Network "C," the…

A study analyzed the continuing professional education (CPE) requirements, practices, policies, evaluation measures, and perception of impact on practice and participants in the counseling profession. Research was conducted in 22 states with at least 5 years experience with their counselor licensing legislation requiring CPE. Other states were…

Although interdisciplinary teaching has long been supported as a pedagogical practice, little research has looked closely at interdisciplinary teaching. A literature review was undertaken, therefore, to articulate the current theoretical understanding of interdisciplinary education and to examine how it influences practice in middle and high…

The Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a nationwide information system sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI). As part of the National Library of Education, ERIC maintains the largest education database in the world. This document consists of 82 ERIC Digests, which are…

This book provides basic data on educational attainment, achievement, and practices for each state and the United States as a whole, with a focus on the academic-achievement gap between minority and white students. The first part provides an overview of the national picture of education, describing academic achievement, expenditures and…

Intended to link civic education curriculum, instruction, and assessment, this guide is directed to those educators who are looking for ways to authentically assess students in the area of civic education. The handbook is designed to connect content and the broader goals of preparing youth to participate in democratic society. It is based on the…