In this era of audit and accountability, there is an imperative to demonstrate and document that appropriate standards have been set in professional education. In medicine, stakeholders want assurance that graduates have attained the required level of competence to be awarded a provisional licence to practise. To investigate the results of a…

Assessment, it seems, is everywhere in higher education these days, as institutions develop assessment plans and accrediting bodies require evidence that students are meeting appropriate educational goals. Defining student learning as the central activity of higher education is not, in itself, controversial. Indeed, the assessment movement…

Graduate degrees prostitute the educational process when they are sold to consumers by unaccredited degree/diploma mills as being equivalent to legitimate, bona-fide degrees awarded by accredited graduate schools. This article carefully analyzes the serious problems of bogus degrees and their association with the religious higher education…

Creating programs and curricular offerings that are standards-based is a worthwhile goal that can best be achieved by using the many and varied resources available to educators and others. This article describes several such resources, including the ITEA Annual Conference, ITEA-CATTS Standards Specialists, ITEA-CATTS Engineering byDesign[TM]…

This paper presents a model for implementing and sustaining standards-based curricular reform and seven recommendations for principals that are grounded in the results of a comprehensive, longitudinal study. The study examined the characteristics of five schools through data from principals, teachers, students, and external observers over a 6-year…

Since the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 states have experienced continual change in how they define and implement alternate assessments. A subset of 16 states was randomly selected to determine how each state is implementing alternate assessments and achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive…

Mike Frank G. Epitropoulos moved to Greece in the summer of 2005 to become chairman of the business and applied-sociology departments on a small branch campus of the University of Indianapolis, in the shadow of the Acropolis. A former sociology professor at the University of Pittsburgh, he had long wanted to live with his wife and two sons in the…

This article focuses on the coordinated effort of governors, business leaders and education leaders to prepare students for college. Governors from 45 states, corporate executives, policy experts, leaders from both secondary and higher education, and representatives from a wide range of philanthropic and other nonprofit organizations have all…

In this article, the author describes how the transition from district-centered to school-based staff development can add to the burden on principals. This column first presents a brief review of the efforts of Braxton Hinsdale, a staff development director who advocated for moving professional development resources from the district level to the…

Public education matters, whether you're a student, parent, teacher, administrator, employer, or taxpayer. Although you undoubtedly know something about public education, you may be unaware of important facts about the U.S. educational system or may be surprised to learn how things have changed in recent years. This edition of "A Public…

The Department has developed a Race to the Top program review process that not only addresses the Department's responsibilities for fiscal and programmatic oversight, but is designed to identify areas to differentiate support based on individual State needs, as well as certain topics where States can leverage work with each other and with experts…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of the District of Columbia's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. The Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) manages the District of Columbia…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Delaware's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. Delaware created new structures at the State level to support both State and LEA (local education agency) Race…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Florida's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. Florida received a Race to the Top award in September 2010 as part of Phase 2 of the Race to the Top…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Georgia's Year 1 Race to the Top implementation, highlighting successes and accomplishments, identifying challenges, and providing lessons learned from implementation to date. Georgia's first-year accomplishments include awarding the State's first five Race to the Top Innovation Fund…