Marine phytoplankton comprise the foundation of oceanic food webs and generate most of the Earth's oxygen. Of the many phytoplankton species in the ocean, a few dozen produce potent toxins, and at high concentrations can form what are called Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) or "red tides" that can discolor marine waters. Managers and…

To gather, contribute, connect, be a creative force, defend, and guide are demanding dispositions that make an excellent school library professional. School librarians use these dispositions like poles of support as they glide down the slopes of student learning and curriculum. They leverage their roles of teacher and librarian like skis giving…

In 2012, as the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Elementary and Secondary Schools (NSBECS) were published, the Michigan Non-Public School Accrediting Association (MNSAA) embarked on a mission to update its school accreditation process in an effort to refresh the process and to better align with current educational…

The Physical Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (PECAT) is designed to help school districts and schools conduct a clear, complete, and consistent analysis of physical education curricula for K-12 students. This analysis focuses on how well a curriculum aligns with national standards for physical education. PECAT results can help school districts…

The Louisiana English language arts student standards were created by over one hundred Louisiana educators with input by thousands of parents and teachers from across the state. Educators envisioned what proficient students should know and be able to do to compete in our society and focused their efforts on creating standards that would allow them…

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) is the most recent reform in science education across the United States. The NGSS demands a shift in both teaching and learning. Yet there is no direction on how teachers are to implement this shift in their classrooms. This mixed-methods study examined 12 middle school teachers' perceptions and the…

Saint Edmond's Academy is a small, independent, Catholic school in Wilmington, Delaware. Students in Grades 4 to 7 are falling below their peers in other independent schools on standardized tests in mathematics, specifically the Educational Advisory Company Comprehensive Testing Program assessment. Within the scope of this work, my goal was to…

Education reform has focused on academic standards, but curriculum is still weighed down by outdated subject-area categories that are reinforced through various practices and institutions. T his article examines the possibilities for an integrative curriculum model that can accommodate the broad goals of holistic education and the needs of society…

Reading and writing translate to centuries of shared knowledge and can be expanded upon with the ability to acquire multiple tongues. In response to today's most widely spoken languages, Chinese/English and Spanish/English dual language immersion programs continue to grow across the United States. Unfortunately, the lack of uniformity in the…

As a young teacher, Jane Katch was mentored by Vivian Paley. Katch watched how Paley turned puzzling issues into exciting explorations. Later in her own class, Katch became intrigued by the violent imaginative games that a group of boys were playing. Following Paley's example, Katch immersed herself in trying to examine the play rather than to…

Contribution: This article shares the learning ecosystem of a project-based safety-critical systems (SCS) course, identifying course contents that support self-directed learning and how assignments develop students' knowledge and understanding toward meeting the demand of industries. Background: The syllabus for undergraduate and postgraduate…

This exploratory study was conducted to evaluate the quality of digital math games by measuring how much the content of a digital game is aligned to the NCTM Content and Process Standards. For this purpose, this study employed a content analysis method. In total, 23 digital mathematics games have been selected and analyzed using an instrument, a…

This article presents the results of our analysis of a sample of 254 Calculus I final exams (collectively containing 4,167 individual items) administered at U.S. colleges and universities. We characterize the specific meanings of foundational concepts the exams assessed, identify features of exam items that assess productive meanings, distinguish…

The proliferation of massive open online courses (MOOCs) highlights the necessity of developing accurate and diagnostic evaluation methods to assess the courses' quality and effectiveness. Hence, this study proposes a diagnostic MOOC evaluation (DME) method that combines the Analytic Hierarchy Process algorithm and learner review mining to…

This paper addresses a call for teachers to promote students' knowledge of criteria and standards within curriculum domains for self-monitoring and improvement purposes. We present the case for students to develop, as part of their learning in content areas, the evaluative knowledge and expertise of the type that teachers bring to the classroom.…