The North Carolina State Board of Education developed the ABCs of Public Education in response to the School-Based Management and Accountability Program enacted in 1996. The ABCs focuses on accountability with an emphasis on high educational standards, teaching the basics, and maximum local control. This document reports the results of the…

Surveys of literacy attainment have been going on in the United Kingdom since 1948. The main finding is that literacy standards have changed very little in that time. Among 8-year-olds (children in Year 3) in England and Wales, however, standards fell slightly in the late 1980s, and then recovered in the early 1990s. The few international…

Contributors to this book were asked to organize their chapters around the following question: "What do you think it will take to redesign entire school systems for success in the 21st century?" The book is therefore about redesigning entire school districts. The subtheme that emerged in the chapters was redesigning school districts as organic…

Chronological thinking is one of the historical and social sciences analysis skills of the California History-Social Science Standards. The study of history is the study of change. This unit addresses different types of change from "now" to "then." From the community, including types of transportation, to the school, children…

In this 9-week unit, students compare and contrast goods and services and discuss economic activities that occur in cities, sorting them into the production of goods or the provision of a service. Students examine how people use money to purchase goods and services. Wants are defined in terms of trade-offs or choices that must be made. Job…

Prior to the beginning of the Mexican War of Independence in 1810, California was under Spanish rule. Mexico controlled California in 1822, beginning the Rancho period. The Mexican governors distributed large tracts of land to people of influence. Ranching conditions were almost perfect because the climate was mild enough to allow animals to live…

This publication reports on the fall 1997 conference of the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL). It provides an account of the keynote sessions and concurrent sessions, a bibliography of published works related to each session, and summaries of other portions of the conference. The keynote sessions included: (1)…

This report discusses the outcomes of a study that examined the use of accommodations in state assessment by students with disabilities and explored several related factors. A survey of states indicated 12 states (Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Maryland, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, and West…

In this book, a team of teachers and staff developers discuss the transformations of their practice as they read and write in mathematics classrooms, introduce mathematical history and ideas into their social studies and English classrooms, design interdisciplinary projects, and assess student learning more thoroughly. The book also offers models…

California State Standard 5.7 is delineated in the following manner: "Students describe the people and events associated with the development of the U.S. Constitution and analyze the Constitution's significance as the foundation of the American republic." Students answer six questions about the Constitution and present suggestions for…

This model lesson for sixth graders about the beginnings of civilization in the Near East and Africa aims to have students focus on the cultural and geographical features of a region: landforms, climate, and vegetation. The lesson features three major topics: (1) Sumer and Mesopotamia, (2) Egypt, and (3) Kush. It addresses the uses and…

Important ideas from the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman traditions are formally introduced to students in the sixth-grade course. Units three and five focus on people and ideas that form the roots of western civilization. The goal is to help students perceive how the viewpoints of Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman are congruent and divergent. Unit…

California State Standard 7.1 is delineated in the following manner: "Students analyze the causes and effects of the vast expansion and ultimate disintegration of the Roman Empire." One important legacy of ancient Rome is the foundation it set for the development of modern democracies. The Roman Stoics built upon the Greek Stoic model by…

This video is one of a four-part series which is designed to introduce teachers and parents to standards and teaching in a standards-based environment, and aims to help teachers and parents understand how teaching with standards can change classrooms, work assignments, and student performance. This video focuses on classrooms where the teachers…

In 1995, the Appalachian Rural Systemic Initiative (ARSI) was awarded a 5-year grant to improve performance in mathematics and science in a 66-county area in central Appalachia through high-quality, standards-based teaching supported by aligned, coherent local and regional systems. The ARSI model has three levels. The first level entails local…