This policy brief summarizes research results and provides guidance regarding decisions associated with school accountability. Unlike previous notions of accountability, a standards-based system examines outputs, such as student performance and graduation rates, as well as inputs like the amount of instructional time or the number of books in the…

As part of Vermont's efforts to set shared educational goals, this document describes what is expected of Vermont students. It is designed as a guide to parents about what teachers and schools are doing to help students meet the state's new expectations. Vermont has defined an educational framework that encourages many different learning styles…

The state of Rhode Island has recently embarked in a new state accountability system for public elementary and secondary education. An overview of the system is provided, coupled with an understanding of accountability systems as technologies of social control. The ramifications of such technologies are discussed along with the costs, benefits,…

This guide provides a variety of tools that can help educators, building staff, or school districts decide how to include environmental education in their curriculum. Chapter 1 identifies important environmental education concepts. Chapter 2 describes different general approaches and the advantages of each. Two models and the key components of…

This paper describes a preparation program in which 16 high school biology teachers in widely diverse settings across the country have successfully implemented a new standards-based biology curriculum, "Biology: A Community Context" (BACC), written by W.H. Leonard and J.E. Penick. During the summer of 1997, these 16 teachers were given an…

In December 1997, three of Missouri's key educational boards--the State Board of Education, the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and the University of Missouri Board of Curators--created an historic partnership among business, education, and political leaders. Known as the Missouri K-16 Coalition and composed of prominent Missourians…

This publication is intended to help schools develop and implement comprehensive reform initiatives. It provides an overview of comprehensive school reform and offers suggestions for selecting and implementing research-based instruction, which includes a step-by-step process for selecting and adopting research-based instructional methods that are…

This report is based on a survey of two statewide samples of elementary schools whose fourth-grade students took a state test in reading, writing, mathematics, and listening. The first sample was a group of 30 schools whose scores had improved significantly from 1997 to 1998. The second sample was a comparison group of 10 schools that served…

This book intends to make the contents of the standards in the eight liberal-arts subjects more accessible to teachers, parents, and the general public. Content standards identify what students are expected to know and be able to do and can provide a way to identify the knowledge and skills that society wants young people to possess. The volume is…

The Elementary School Proficiency Assessment (ESPA) is the state test taken by students in the fourth and fifth grade. It is designed to give a school information about how well the students are achieving in the areas required by New Jersey's Core Curriculum Content Standards. For 2001, a new subject Social Studies has been added to the ESPA. The…

This guide explores the connection between electricity and magnetism with middle level and high school students. The phenomenon of electromagnetism is broken down into four lesson plans that provide students and teachers with a carefully constructed yet easy way to learn about their history. All four activities prompt students to use inexpensive,…

This book on educational standards describes how standards create more harm than good, and it takes to task the pro-standards movement. The volume opens with a discussion of what is wrong with standards, claiming that the push for standards generally results in long lists of facts that are freighted with cultural baggage and are typically the…

Mid-Continent Research for Education and Learning held the second of a proposed series of three roundtables on student diversity in November 1999. Three commissioned papers prepared by national experts were the basis for activities at the roundtable. Focusing on the unique needs of at-risk students, the papers detail current research and effective…

This document is designed to establish consistency in the definition and format to be used in developing early literacy standards and benchmarks. It articulates a set of standards and benchmarks that is based on current national and state standards documents and that reflects the foundational knowledge and developmental differences representative…

The purpose of this digest is to review various interpretations of balanced reading instruction and to explore the relationship between this instructional approach to beginning reading and state reading standards. Sections of the digest address what balanced reading is, offer examples from classroom practice, and discuss reading instruction and…