To help teachers, administrators, and parents understand student performance in writing, a state-level report is prepared each year to analyze students writing scores and provide guidelines for the interpretation of the results. This report compares students scores on the 2001 Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) with scores on the 2000 DSTP…

This report is the second in a series of RAND reports on the topic of education research and development proposing a long-term, strategic program of research and development in mathematics education. The RAND Mathematics Study Panel's recommendations for the substance and conduct of the program are presented in this report. The program is designed…

This paper focuses on the formulation and adoption of content standards in California. The standards-setting process is examined through the theoretical lens of deliberative democracy in order to develop a better understanding of the process and to assess the extent to which the institutions charged with deciding what students should learn can act…

The Achievement-Levels Setting (ALS) process for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) resulted in numerical cutscores on the NAEP score scale representing the performance standards for three achievement levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. This paper focuses on an important, but less researched, aspect of the standard setting…

Intended to make the issue of landmines pertinent and accessible to classroom teachers, this curriculum unit helps high school students learn how to undertake an analysis of the anti-personnel landmine crisis in some of the world's most severely affected countries and consider potential programs for landmine removal, recovery, and reconstruction.…

This book is a synthesis of work done and expansion of the handouts, reports, graphs, charts, and communiques related to the work in approximately 130 school districts developing standards-based accountability systems for compensatory education. It serves as a guide to evaluating compensatory education programs and using multiple measures to…

This study investigated the potential impact on enrollment of raising academic admissions requirements for first-semester freshmen at Stephen F. Austin University (Texas). Data collected in spring 1998 included three years of enrollment and admissions data from SFA's admissions office, 1995-96 statewide high school graduate and individual school…

This multimedia kit contains information on academic standards and includes supplementary materials. The kit includes a 286-page book that presents condensed, edited, and commonly formatted versions of national standards in the arts, civics, foreign languages, geography, history, and science. Mathematics and English-language arts standards have…

This standards document begins with a brief introduction and overview outlining and explaining a vision for mathematics teaching and learning in South Dakota, the purpose of the document, and the structure/organization of the document. Goals, rationales, and indicators for South Dakota Mathematics are also listed along with the South Dakota…

This document presents guidelines for what every K-12 Louisiana student should know and be able to do as a result of studying the four core strands of the social sciences: geography, civics, economics, and history. Following introductory and explanatory information, the document is organized by strand. Each section begins with a focus paragraph…

These Colorado state music content standards are based on the idea that music education benefits students by developing them fully and gradually building music literacy while cultivating intuition, reasoning, imagination, and dexterity into unique forms of expression and communication. The guide suggests that standards provide a substantive…

This document was designed as a resource for district-level professional developers and teacher leaders who work with middle school teachers of mathematics. A bridge between standards and the classroom, it offers opportunities for teachers to examine the interrelationships between assessment, standards, and instruction in order to improve student…

This policy brief presents an in-depth look at the issue of grade-retention in Texas, reviews research that finds this practice to be ineffective, and outlines alternatives to both retention and social promotion. In-grade retention has been a recurrent theme in education over the last 30 years, and it is currently linked to calls for higher…

Teachers and teacher educators interested in synthesizing their current practice with new mathematics standards will welcome this highly useful volume. The QUASAR Project at the University of Pittsburgh presents prevalent cases of mathematics instruction drawn from their research of nearly 500 classroom lessons. The Mathematical Tasks…

The standards, benchmarks, and indicators in this document were created to help Kansas educators develop local curricula and assessments, and to serve as the basis for the state assessments in mathematics. The committee strove to recommend high yet reasonable expectations for all students. There are four mathematics curricular standards: (1)…