'Underachievement' is now a widely used term in education policy and practice. It is used routinely to refer to nations, home nations and regions, to types and sectors of schooling, to physiological, ethnic and social groups, and to individuals. It has been used to mean simply low achievement, also lower achievement relative to another of these…

This article describes an academic choice program in Texas public schools where 8th graders are being given a choice of three different academic plans to follow through graduation, two of which are distinctively tougher than the third. Policymakers in Texas, Arkansas, and Indiana are opting to raise academic standards by making a college-prep…

Recently, the NCAA has enacted new standards requiring academic reform for student-athletes. The guidelines are the same even for smaller, less profitable programs and schools. But with less money, small schools, including most historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs), have fewer resources to allocate to the NCAA's academic reform…

Science educators have appropriated many meanings for the phrase "scientific literacy" (Champagne & Lovitts, 1989). This paper advances an argument that in order to maintain the usefulness of such a malleable phrase, its users must explicitly address the context of its use. Based on the vision of science education articulated in standards…

The Benchmarks for Science Literacy and the National Science Education Standards, two classic documents has made three strong recommendations about how students at all ages should be learning biology. The recommendations include reducing the number of concepts that are taught in a biology course, emphasizing on having students learn the methods of…

Minority students face numerous academic barriers for achievement in the classroom as well as outside the school. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) suggests six principles for maintaining the standard of school mathematics.

There is nothing more frustrating for a student than to receive a project assignment with little or no description of how it will be graded. The student completes the project and then the teacher picks a grade by some unseen checklist. For students, parents, school administrators, and a program advisory board, this method of student assessment…

Everyone wants a world-class university. No country feels it can do without one. The problem is that no one knows what a world-class university is, and no one has figured out how to get one. Everyone, however, refers to the concept. A Google search, for example, produces thousands of references, and many institutions--from modest academic…

This paper examines the use of educational standards and benchmarks in international indicator and other relevant policy publications, particularly those originating in the UK. The authors first examine what is meant by educational standards and benchmarks and how these concepts are defined. Then, they address the use of standards and benchmarks…

A professor of the old school invents the scenario of an avowed educational mediocrity that must defend its reputation for expecting the very least from its students and faculty. His fictional Damp State University cherishes its position on the lowest tier of "U.S. News & World Report's" rankings. Professor Reeves gives us a bitter…

Teaching the Holocaust is a complex undertaking involving twists and turns that can frustrate and even intimidate educators who teach the Holocaust. This complexity involves both the event's history and its pedagogy. In this article, the author considers eight pedagogical approaches that often cause problems in teaching the event. He states each…

In this article, the author presents the dangers in group work. He states that one common dilemma is when groups tend to come to agreement too quickly. Another dilemma is when the team is getting bogged down and becoming defensive or adversarial when members express new ideas or introduce new data. Finally, a very common danger is group members'…

Secondary vocational-technical education programs in Mississippi are faced with many challenges resulting from sweeping educational reforms at the national and state levels. Schools and teachers are increasingly being held accountable for providing true learning activities to every student in the classroom. This accountability is measured through…

The purpose of this publication is to share models and case examples of the process of inclusive arts curriculum design and evaluation. The first section explains the conceptual and curriculum frameworks that were used in the analysis and generation of the featured case studies (i.e. Understanding by Design, Differentiated Instruction, and…

In the education world, it is widely accepted that language learning is one of the pioneering disciplines in the application and use of the information and communication technologies, initially preceded by the widespread use of audiovisual resources which, finally integrated in the digital space, bring about the use of multimedia. Additionally,…