After developing independently of each other for centuries, European higher-education systems are beginning serious efforts to "harmonize" their systems. The goal is to promote European integration and economic growth by making academic standards and degrees compatible across national boundaries. The Bologna Declaration of May 1999…

Proposes activities involving the World Wide Web that reflect the emphasis in the national standards for foreign-language learning on learning about other cultures and the necessity for becoming a lifelong learner. Proposes learning scenarios at the three grade levels for six standards covering all five Cs, using French as the target language.…

Discusses the need for an international approach to quality assessment and assurance in higher education that goes beyond national efforts, and proposes a European Centre for Substantial Equivalence in academic standards. Argues that a European or international-quality hallmark will play an important role in student, faculty, and employee…

College students completed evaluation-of-teaching surveys in five different courses to develop an evaluation instrument that would provide results concerning faculty performance. Two questions examined students' expectations regarding grades. Results indicated a significant degree of expected grade inflation. Large proportions of students doing…

One of the intriguing aspects of the cultures goal in the national standards for foreign language learning is the relationships that are highlighted among cultural perspectives, practices, and products. In classrooms, teachers may already address cultural practices and products but may not consider philosophical perspectives of culture. Purpose of…

Given the amount of time, energy, and money devoted to provincial achievement exams in Canada, it is disturbing that Alberta students and teachers feel so pressured and that the exams do not accurately reflect what students know. Research shows that intelligence has an (untested) emotional component. (MLH)

State aid programs for local schools have not kept pace with New York State's ambitious, revamped Regents examination program. This paper explains a method for developing a comprehensive education cost index and shows how to incorporate it into a performance-based foundation aid system. (Contains 36 references.) (MLH)

A proposal to reform New York State's special-education funding system is based on a count of all students and includes a poverty adjustment. However, the decision to maintain separate funding systems for students with certain disabilities may conflict with the state's inclusive educational objectives. (Contains 18 references.) (MLH)

This article describes a set of software programs designed to teach mathematics to all students including students with disabilities. The programs are based on the standards of the National Council of Teachers and Mathematics. The article reports on the effective use of one of these programs with four students with various disabilities. (Contains…

Explores school districts' responses to state science standards and examines the ideas about science education that district policy makers construct from these standards. A cause of failing to implement state science standards, rarely examined in the literature, concerns the ways in which local implementers miss or misconstrue the intent of policy…

Provides an account of access policies in relation to university education in South Africa by analyzing the practices surrounding the report "A Framework for Transformation." Argues that the repositioning of equity, economic development, and academic standards within the arena of the National Commission on Higher Education has shaped…

Reports on controversy surrounding Portland (Oregon) State University's nationally renowned, interdisciplinary general education program. Critics feel the four-year curriculum, which focuses on learning processes rather than content, has resulted in a watered-down curriculum that doesn't teach enough writing, math, literature, science, art, and…

Describes a matrix that can illustrate the educational relationship between a course's learning activities and learning objectives. Discusses the development of the matrix in the context of a first-year engineering design course, and gives alternative applications of the matrix, such as using it in course articulation and using it as part of the…

Examines geometry language used in K-6 textbooks and compares the findings to language used in modern mathematics standards documents. Finds a substantial misalignment between the geometry presented in textbooks, the geometry teaching expectations of mathematics education professionals, and the geometry being assessed in student performance…

Proponents of national tests claim they are needed to provide individual student test scores and to yield aggregate statewide and nationwide data. However, other sources already provide mountains of data, and U.S. school children are already the most tested in the world. The tests proposed by Congress will be harmful, since there are inadequate…