The European qualifications framework (EQF), with its eight levels, serves as a translation grid between qualifications acquired in different European countries. Part of Cedefop's work to make qualifications easier to understand and compare, this study takes a closer look at those acquired through initial VET and assigned to EQF levels 3 and 4 via…

All Florida schools teach the Florida Standards Assessments (FSA) in English Language Arts (ELA) and Mathematics and the Next Generation Sunshine State Standards (NGSSS) in Science and Social Studies. Student performance provides important information to parents/guardians, teachers, policy makers, and the general public regarding how well students…

A critical issue is the role of the educational leader in closing the achievement gap in literacy between students living in poverty and those who are not. Not all students are given the same opportunity to be successful in school (Jacobson, 2011; Krashen, 2011). Poverty often means lower scores on all measures of school achievement (Krashen,…

Physical education (PE) programs provide learning experiences designed to fulfill developmental and behavioral needs of the whole child. In the state of Illinois and across the country, however, student-centered PE programs are being limited or eliminated. Illinois laws reduced the requirements of PE and gave school district administrators the…

Recently, the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) released a document that established initial performance levels and the associated threshold scale scores for the Smarter Balanced assessment. The report included estimated percentages of students expected to perform at each of the four performance levels, reported by grade…

With the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) many teachers continue to search for ways to engage students in the learning process while meeting the rigorous demands of the standards. Researchers suggest that by providing opportunities for higher order thinking, student choice, and creative ways to showcase knowledge, students will…

The Government welcomes the Higher Education Standards Panel's report on how the admissions policies and processes of higher education providers can be made clearer, easier to access and more useful, to inform the choices and decisions of prospective students and their families. The Panel's recommendations provide a comprehensive and well thought…

The number of English language learners (ELLs) mainstreamed into regular classrooms continues to increase. Curricular writing standards required by the Common Core State Standards require students to write essays analytically in response to text(s). Many English Language Arts (ELA) teachers may worry about effectively delivering essay writing…

As more and more cities and states diversify the educational options available to parents and students, creating magnet, open-enrollment, small school, career and technical, charter, and private school opportunities, educational choice markets need to become a part of the regulation conversation. In this report, Mike McShane examines the…

This Statistics in Brief adds to existing research on early-career teachers by presenting findings on their preparation and supports from data from the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). This brief, like past research, investigates several specific areas of preparation and types of support. For the purposes of this brief, early-career…

This article represents a response to the authors' "Journal of Teacher Education" ("JTE") article (Fishman et al., 2013) by Moon, Passmore, Reiser, and Michaels (2013). The authors believe that Moon et al. have properly identified both the value in their study and the importance of moving beyond not only their study, but…

The Common Core State Standards call for the increased presence of nonfiction in the school curriculum and for students' exposure to narratives characterized by textual complexity. At first glance, these recommendations may discourage classroom teachers from continuing the longstanding instructional practice of using historical fiction to…

Three research-based and time honored strategies--Question Answer Relationships (QAR), Question the Author (QtA), and Reciprocal Teaching (RT)--were matched to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) to determine if the use of those instructional routines would address the new, more rigorous standards. Specifically, Grade 4 TEKS for…

School district officials have faced the urgent task in recent years of ensuring that all schools, not just a lucky few, benefit from sure-footed leadership by professionals who know how to focus on instruction and improve it. The question boils down to this: How can districts develop a pipeline of great school principals? Research about a Wallace…

Objectives: A team of education researchers is leading a three-year project to develop and implement an online system for reporting and research on state student assessment policies across all states (Indicator 12). Theoretical Framework In the past five years as more rigorous standards have been adopted by many states, a key issue for state…