A Web site can be the unifying force among schools with in a district. Many approaches work. Anyone who examines a few school district Web sites will appreciate the variation in content and design each provides. For example, Des Moines Iowa Public Schools, a district in which many in the community speak a second language, provides Web content in…

Increasingly, teachers rely on computer software and networks to both enhance curriculum management and provide engaging learning opportunities in instruction. New software is enabling more frequent formative assessments to better focus day-to-day lessons on the unique needs of individual learners. Administrators use increasingly complex data…

This article discusses high schools and reform. During the past two decades, school reformers have sighed when speaking of change in secondary schools, saying they were the hardest--and would be the last--nutshell they would seek to crack in making significant improvements in the education of young people. Efforts in secondary schools would need…

This article reports that Massachusetts has made great strides in education over the past decade. The author attributes the success in large part to the very factors that have drawn the most criticism: the high standards and high stakes attached to the state assessments. Sections include: (1) The Massachusetts Case; (2) Implementation; and (3) The…

Science teachers nationwide share many of the same aspirations and challenges, such as the increasing pressure to improve students' test scores. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires each state to create academic standards and proficiency levels in math, reading, and science that all students must meet by 2014. A testing program to assess…

If middle or high school students were asked to define mathematics, they would probably respond with course titles or functions of mathematics that they have completed; i.e., ratios, proportions, algebra, geometry. However, a more open-ended and broader definition or meaning of mathematics is the study of patterns. It is with the latter definition…

In this article, the author questions the validity of an educational accountability system (i.e., the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001) that stresses only 'high stakes assessments" for all children. He maintains that state and national educational reformers have based their argument on an invalid assessment of student achievement in America,…

The research reported here is the result of an exploration of the challenges and triumphs of an African American secondary principal who used a culture-specific leadership style in his quest to raise the standards at an information technology high school. This case study of the principal explores his combining of the elements of traditional…

There are approximately 8,600 schools in the US that had failed to make their minimal requirement of "adequate yearly progress" and were labeled under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy criteria, as "low-performing." Some of these schools were in fact doing great but had only failed in meeting the requirement of having 95% of its students take the…

A methodology that has not received as much attention in the physical education setting as in other subject areas is cooperative learning. Cooperative learning has been used for many years in math, science, and history, but not until recently has the concept been applied to physical education. Research conducted on cooperative learning has shown…

During the last twenty years, curriculum alignment activities have increased among school organizations that want to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the instructional and assessment programs. In this article, the authors discuss three important considerations that should be understood prior to curriculum development: (1) The actual…

This article features the ?Special Act" public school districts located throughout New York State. These districts were created by special acts of the New York State Legislature to serve children in child-caring institutions and one children's hospital in the state. The purpose of these special districts is to allow public schools to be…

Nebraska districts use different strategies for measuring student performance on the state's content standards. District assessments differ in type and technical quality. Six quality criteria were endorsed by the state. These criteria cover content and curricular validity, fairness, and appropriateness of score interpretations. District assessment…

This module describes some common standard-setting procedures used to derive performance levels for achievement tests in education, licensure, and certification. Upon completing the module, readers will be able to: describe what standard setting is; understand why standard setting is necessary; recognize some of the purposes of standard setting;…

The publicizing of the Beijing University Teacher Personnel System Reform Plan has aroused strong concern among institutions of higher learning nationwide. This is because Beida's graduates will no longer be retained as teachers at the university and Beida's teaching positions will be open to recruitment in China and the world as a whole. In view…