Discusses how staff development is different in standards-based systems, describing ways to ensure that systems have the capacity for growth and development based on the standards, explaining configuration maps, and presenting six components of building capacity for standards-based reform: covenants; staff and community involvement; curriculum,…

A journalist looks at the qualities of elite public high schools, examining how they promote academic rigor and high achievement and how these variables can be measured. The role of advanced placement programs in setting high standards and motivating students is highlighted. (MSE)

A seminar in Idaho on creating assessment and accountability plans for charter schools presented attributes of assessments that build children's confidence and give insights into how they can improve; offered criteria for using portfolio assessments; and described how to develop objectives that are measurable. A sidebar presents a six-step plan…

Argues that the conscious originating motives for both market-oriented and uniform standards approaches to improving the quality of teacher education may not guarantee the effects of such policies in the real world of real schools, noting that such reforms may have dangerous consequences unless efforts are situated within an honest analysis of…

An alternative high school teacher examined whether her students could be motivated to achieve higher performance levels, testing a theory that performance would improve if students were asked to meet detailed standards rather than be rewarded for class attendance and assignment completion. The experiment had mixed results. (Author/SM)

Summarizes the objectives, guidelines, and skills sets contained within the 1994 National Geography Standards. Concise examples illustrate the implementation of broad objectives. Discusses how each stage of the curriculum is connected to developmental growth. Recommends increased cooperation and coordination between secondary and higher education.…

The impact of the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) on the role of agencies such as Citizens' Advice Bureaux--that is, voluntary-sector advice agencies with a strong welfare right ethos--is examined. The implications of NVQs on the everyday practice of advice giving in voluntary settings is explored. (Author)

The current obsession with standardizing curricula and measuring output may further reduce teacher agency and marginalize segments of our society that are already cheated by the system. Enormous discrepancies exist among public-school facilities, resources, and teachers. Multicultural education will suffer unless legislatures address these…

Examined the impact of a standards-based instructional method, designed by the Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence (CREDE), on the achievement of at-risk American Indian 8th graders studying mathematics. Results indicated that students instructed in a manner consistent with CREDE's standards had greater achievement than…

Concerned that distance education programs do not provide education equivalent to that traditionally offered, the United States regional accrediting associations expanded their standards to include such specific concerns as the qualifications of faculty, preparation and delivery of courses, access to appropriate information resources, and…

Explores whether African Americans should support today's education reform standards movement, examining African American students' historical struggle for academic excellence; impediments (lack of opportunity to learn, tracking, and student perceptions of the standards movement); higher education's role in the standards movement; and…

Presents an annotated bibliography of trade books selected by the National Council for the Social Studies and the Children's Book Council primarily for grades K-8 that emphasize human relations, diversity, sensitivity to cultural experiences, originality, high literary quality, and a pleasing format. Indicates the thematic strands of social…

Increasingly, high school students are earning college credits while still in high school, through dual enrollment or advanced placement, which enable some to earn bachelor's degrees in three years or with 12-credit semesters. The trend can reduce student costs, but has sparked debate among professors about whether students are unwisely skipping…

Describes an eight-step integrated school district strategy for individual school reform that makes the pursuit of greater school equity, accountability, and efficiency a mutually supporting, goal-oriented activity capable of facilitating student academic excellence. Discusses how districts and schools can benefit from this and emphasizes steps to…

During a 1998 National Rural Education Association symposium, participants indicated that urban-style standards improve rural schools with adequate resources, cause confusion and concern, and conflict with local decision making. To match education standards with rural communities' values, many questions must be resolved in public political forums.…