This fourth report in the Southern Regional Education Board's series on middle-grades education recommends a number of actions that states, districts, and schools can take to improve middle-school student performance. These recommendations address lagging achievement, a lack of focus on academics, unprepared teachers, and a need for leadership and…

This digest offers a snapshot of the standards movement: its origins, the definitions of standards and which ones matter, its successes at the district and state levels, the backlash against the movement, and possible policy directions. While a broad coalition of constituencies has embraced standards-based reform as a means of improving public…

Following adoption of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in 1998, new prekindergarten curriculum guidelines were developed. These voluntary guidelines articulate what 3- and 4-year-olds should know and be able to do and provide a means to align prekindergarten programs with the TEKS curriculum. The guidelines are intended to assist…

This curriculum guide for a PBS 2-part, 180-minute video, "In Search of the Oregon Trail" (narrated by Stacy Keach), provides information to help teachers develop lesson plans. The guide is comprised of 12 lessons incorporating 31 video chapters. Curriculum areas include history, geography, economics, sociology, ethnic studies, civics…

The goal in the development of this Arizona standard was to assure that the six strands and five unifying concepts are interwoven into a fabric of science that represents the true nature of science. Students have the opportunity to develop both the skills and content knowledge necessary to be scientifically literate members of the community.…

This document contains the Arizona academic standards for Grade 1. The following 11 standards are reviewed: (1) The Arts Standards 1997 ? Foundations (Grades 1-3); (2) Comprehensive Health Standards 1997 ? Foundations (Grades 1-3); (3) Foreign and Native Language Standards 1997 ? Foundations (Grades 1-3); (4) Reading Standard Articulated by…

Representatives at the school, district and state levels, as well as scholars and researchers, have been working with the Education Commission of the States? National Center for Learning and Citizenship (ECS/NCLC) to define citizenship education in terms of three strands forming "a braid" of civic competencies. Beginning with the rationale and…

Originally a speech prepared for the Alabama Consortium for the Development of Higher Education, this is a paper that attempts to test assumptions about non-traditional educational programs and simultaneously to posit alternative approaches that are flexible but still maintain appropriate academic standards. (Author)

It is suggested that competitive examinations in chemistry should be produced which will be given annually over the nation at the advanced undergraduate level. (DF)

Author evaluates Christopher Jencks's book, Inequality, in which Jencks's concern is almost completely with the efficacy of education as a means of reducing inequality, particularly income inequality, as a characteristic of our society. (Author/RK)

Considers the cost of education as it relates to independent schools. (RK)

Experimental college deals with the problem of maintaining academic standards with an open admissions policy. (HS)

Analysis of the forces behind the current lowering of academic standards in the universities. (SP)

Evaluates the change in student characteristics and the effectiveness of the abolition of SAT scores as an admission requirement. (HS)