Over the past decades, multicultural education advocates have proposed various educational strategies and teaching approaches for K-12 that have enjoyed limited application. In-service and preservice educators are still not well prepared for implementing multicultural education. In order to advance K-12 multicultural education, effective teaching…

Like many other states, Massachusetts enacted numerous changes to teacher certification policy during the 1980s and 1990s. During the summer of 1998, the state legislature and Department of Education made two especially significant changes: a signing bonus of U.S. $20,000 for an elite group of new teachers, and a state-funded alternative…

The policy of including pupils with special educational needs (SEN) in mainstream schools and classes is now firmly established in many jurisdictions worldwide. Successful implementation of such policy depends largely on teachers having the knowledge, skills and competencies necessary to make it work. This poses a considerable challenge for both…

Exemplary teaching is directed to the essences of a lesson theme and provides possibilities for successfully implementing the essential conditions for educative and formative tasks. A particular example is not chosen to serve as a first learning step but because the essence of a greater whole is reflected in it. This gives teaching a depth where…

The Southeast Center for Teaching Quality (SECTQ) has quickly established itself as a national leader on issues related to teaching quality. This report demonstrates the high-quality work that has become the standard for the center. Researchers focused on case studies in four southern states, 12 districts, and 24 high-need schools to determine if…

This empirical study is intended to assess whether a standards-based integrated teacher preparation curriculum is more beneficial in developing professional competencies than a traditional course-oriented curriculum at a college of education in a state university. Using multivariate analysis of variance, we found that students who went through the…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the use of standardized teacher tests as demonstration of licensure competencies for diverse candidates in Oregon and nationally. The following four areas and their accompanying questions guide the development of this paper: (1) Why would a diverse teacher workforce help close the achievement gap?; (2) What…

Certification tests for elementary teachers in Ontario were introduced in 1871 and in 2002. Although the provincial government's stated goals for the testing programs were similar, the 2002 program was opposed by the initial teacher education programs and the teachers' associations, but the 1871 program was not. The authors argue that much of this…

In this article, the author takes a close look at alternative certification programs and is convinced that, because they vary so extremely in their requirements, all of them cannot possibly be producing highly qualified teachers. Here, he talks about Non-University Certification Programs (NUCPs). These are alternative certification programs that…

This article presents an account of the development of competency standards and profiles for primary teachers in Vietnam. The development project has taken more than four years and used a combination of consultative, actuarial, and item response modeling procedures to develop and validate a scale of teacher competence. In the overall project, more…

This paper takes a specific university Department of Romance Languages as a case study to examine how the measures it adopted in view of increasing enrollment in Spanish in the nineties coincide with the recommendations in the MLA's 2007 report; it also examines how they have fared after some 12 years of implementation, advances explanations for…

This article focuses on the three-year findings of a parent survey designed to gauge their students' technology interest while receiving instruction from student teachers in a federal educational technology grant. A major objective of the grant was to engage pre-service teachers in a computer technology training program designed to equip them with…

This article presents a description of current practices in educating students with mild intellectual disabilities in regular schools in Jordan. The data were obtained using several methods, including interviews with special education staff at the Ministry of Education, summaries of documents and published research related to resource rooms and…

Although autism varies from one child to another, there are several common key factors to creating a successful inclusion program. In this article, the author discusses the factors in inclusion program that works for all. These factors include: (1) Appropriate Placement; (2) Teacher and Paraprofessional Selection; (3) Parental Involvement; (4)…

The purpose of this paper was to examine the cross-national performance of fourth- and eighth-grade students in mathematics on the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003. The TIMSS assessment data were used to identify nations that have a competitive edge in the critical area of mathematics. The Trends in International…