For more than ten years, the Oregon Department of Education has been developing and refining a tool to assess students' performance on inquiry-based lessons. The tool they developed, the Science Inquiry Scoring Guide, is a rubric that is tied directly to science education standards and benchmarks set by the state legislature. Ideally, all grade…

Since 2002's "No Child Left Behind" Act (NCLB), Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) has become education jargon, what all schools must achieve in student academic improvement. By 2014, all students must meet math and reading standards. Only Title I schools not meeting AYP are subject to federal sanctions, but most every school failing AYP…

This article presents a dozen common classroom management mistakes that teachers make, followed by suggestions as to what we should do instead. The mistakes presented are committed frequently at many grade levels and in all types of learning environments. The recommended suggestions are relatively easy to implement and useful for all types of…

A survey of elementary and middle school counselors revealed confusion and diverse practices regarding the storage, sharing, and destruction of counselors' notes. A literature review found guidelines developed at a conference convened by the Russell Sage Foundation in 1969. This article categorizes student data according to how personal and stable…

"What gets assessed is what gets taught" is a common assertion whose meaning is often underestimated. It is not just what gets assessed, but how it is assessed that has implications for what is learned. When a child who is asked the meaning of his report card grades responds, "If I knew that I'd be the teacher" he is saying something about the…

The catalogue of conceptions that students are said to have concerning the different topics of the science curriculum is so great that some authors consider this line of research to be exhausted. However, others insist on the need to re-examine students' conceptions in order to better describe them using new theoretical, contexts and research…

The purpose of this paper is to suggest realistic guidelines that balance public access to government information and the need to protect sensitive data. Emphasis is on lessons learned from a 1979 case where the government attempted to prohibit the Progressive Magazine from publishing an article about making a hydrogen bomb and government…

When asylum seekers flee persecution or war in their home countries, they often arrive in a new country seeking asylum, without documentation that can prove their nationality. They are thus open to the accusation that they are not actually fleeing persecution and/or war, but they are from another country and they are merely seeking "a better…

Capstone experiences in higher education are not a new phenomenon. Indeed, for several decades, graduating seniors in a variety of disciplines from a wide range of institutions have participated in a course, program, or activity designed to facilitate their transition to the real world beyond the academy. It has been found that capstones provide…

Factor analysis allows researchers to conduct exploratory analyses of latent variables, reduce data in large datasets, and test specific models. The purpose of this paper is to review common uses of factor analysis, provide general guidelines for best practices, illustrate these guidelines with examples using previously published self-concept…

This article discusses meta-analysis in the context of research in gifted education. It provides the rationale for encouraging meta-analytic reviews, rather than narrative reviews, to synthesize the research in a given area. The article summarizes the results of reported meta-analyses retrieved from electronic databases and provides guidelines for…

Objective: This article introduces the prospective leader to a set of questions and relevant leadership literature that aid in the process of deciding whether to accept a leadership position. Method: The author conducted a review of literature and discussion with leaders in psychiatry and other medical disciplines. Results: The questions posed and…

Research in psychiatric genetics shows that many mental disorders commonly seen by counselors are associated with the presence of specific genes. Although findings in gene research call for some changes in the way counselors approach intervention, in most cases, the importance of the counseling profession's core commitments is underscored. This…

Numerous studies testify to the powerful link between homework and improved student achievement. Homework has also been shown to help teach students to work independently, encourage responsibility and develop good study habits. The appropriate involvement of parents in their children's homework has the added benefit of strengthening the…

One approach to measuring unsigned differential test functioning is to estimate the variance of the differential item functioning (DIF) effect across the items of the test. This article proposes two estimators of the DIF effect variance for tests containing dichotomous and polytomous items. The proposed estimators are direct extensions of the…