In this forum, I expand upon Teo and Osborne's discussion of teacher agency and curriculum reform. I take up and build upon their analysis to further examine one teacher's frustration in enacting an inquiry-based curriculum and his resulting accommodation of an AP curriculum. In this way I introduce the concept of misrecognition (Bourdieu and…

As part of its mission, Educational Testing Service (ETS) has conducted education policy research focused on promoting equal opportunity for all individuals from early childhood through adulthood. This report provides a sampler of this extensive work in three areas chosen to represent major historical foci: (1) Analyzing, evaluating, and informing…

A college degree is often the key to jumpstarting a career. And data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) consistently show that workers who have a college degree earn more than workers who don't. Not surprisingly, a college education is increasingly popular. For example, according to the U.S. Department of Education National Center for…

This article examines teacher scaffolding of academic language in an Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) course throughout a school year for one student who received a perfect score on the end of year APUSH exam. Data includes four months of observation of teacher instructional strategies to scaffold student writing and vignettes of…

School reformers are often searching for a program that will have a positive and far-reaching effect on a school campus. Researchers and writers have described the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IB DP) as a largely positive influence on a school campus, providing a rigorous and standards-based curriculum to IB DP students. However,…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine differences between boys and girls in their performance on STEM related AP exams. Specifically, gender differences were examined for the following STEM related AP exams: Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Physics B, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism, Physics C: Mechanics, Chemistry, and Computer Science…

In this session presented at the Middle States Regional Forum (February 2013), experts working with national data presented trends in higher education from a forward-looking perspective. Senior researchers from the College Board provided trends using SAT, AP, and Net Price Calculator data. The research director of the National Student…

In two studies (ns = 312 and 1,149) with 9- to 12-grade students in pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) and IB Diploma programs, we evaluated the reliability, factor structure, measurement invariance, and criterion-related validity of the scores from the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R). Reliabilities of the five SAAS-R subscale…

The University of North Texas's Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science began admitting students to its 2-year early college entrance science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) program in the fall of 1988. This program provided accelerated entry for top students in Texas in the areas of mathematics and science. Approximately 200…

In two studies (ns = 312 and 1149) with 9-12 grade students in pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) and IB Diploma programs, we evaluated the reliability, factor structure, measurement invariance, and criterion-related validity of the scores from the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R; McCoach & Siegle, 2003a). Reliabilities of…

In December of 2009, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels announced that the latest state revenue forecasts predict that the state of Indiana will spend $1.8 billion more than it receives in tax revenue collections through July 2011. Therefore, Governor Daniels announced that he will cut at least $300 million from K-12 education spending in the next…

Washington's 2008 Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education called for creating "multiple pathways from high school to college or workforce training" --through greater use of dual credit and concurrent high school and college enrollment options. The most prevalent of these in Washington are Running Start, which accounts for 12,500 FTE;…

This article provides a critical review of the way that the International Baccalaureate (IB) promotes international education and international mindedness through the IB Learner Profile. While discussing theories of values and attitudes, and the teaching of values and theories of value acquisition, the paucity of such topics in IB texts is noted.…

While perusing various websites in search of a more challenging lab for my students, I came across a number of ideas where replacing the string in an Atwood's machine with a simple ball chain like the kind found in lamp pulls created an interesting system to investigate. The replacement of the string produced a nice nonuniform acceleration, but…

Analysis of WCPSS' 2009-10 AP reports from the College Board reveal that the number and proportion of WCPSS students taking AP courses and exams continues to grow. Between 1996-97 and 2009-10, the number of students enrolled in WCPSS grew by approximately 63% and the number taking AP exams increased by 238% with a corresponding increase in exams…