This study is aimed at assessing the state of Philippine secondary school physics education using data from a nationwide survey of 464 schools and 767 physics teachers and at identifying challenges for substantive improvements. Teacher-related indicators revealed academic qualification deficiency, low continuing professional involvements, substantial physics teaching experience, and good licensure status. Academic environment indices revealed that the number of physics classes per teacher is...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Teacher Education, Instructional Materials, Educational...
Current federal policy requires that students with disabilities participate in large-scale assessments and be included in schools' scores for adequate yearly progress. Students with significant cognitive disabilities may participate in an alternate assessment with alternate achievement standards, but these standards must be linked to grade-level content and promote access to the general curriculum. Because most research with this population has focused on nonacademic life skills, few guidelines...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Improvement, Attitudes toward Disabilities, Alternative Assessment,...
Today, school administrators face many challenges. These include pressures to increase all students' achievement in core content areas and to prepare students to be technology literate. In addition to these academic needs, principals are concerned for the security and safety of their students and ultimately seek to provide a positive school climate conducive to learning. Administrators in Michigan have pulled together in a statewide effort to meet these challenges with the help of technology....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Leadership, Accountability, Educational Improvement,...
All public schools are required to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in order to avoid stiff penalties, per the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. This presents a unique challenge for comprehensive career and technical (CTE) schools. While there is an emphasis on the CTE path that students are interested in pursuing, academic areas must be mastered with proficiency in order for a school to be successful (in this case, as defined by the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment, or (PSSA)). In...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Vocational Schools, Teaching Models, Federal Legislation, Educational Improvement,...
It should surprise no one that there are faculties throughout North America that refer to themselves as professional learning communities (PLCs) yet do none of the things that PLCs do. Conversely, there are faculties that could serve as model PLCs that may never reference the term. A school does not become a PLC by enrolling in a program, renaming existing practices, taking the PLC pledge, or learning the secret PLC handshake. A school becomes a professional learning community only when the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Program Effectiveness, Educational Change, Faculty Development, Middle Schools,...
This study investigated the relationship between professionally and personally inviting behaviors of high school principals in the state of Mississippi and: (a) Teacher Job Satisfaction, (b) Principal Effectiveness, (c) Principal as an Agent of School Improvement, and (d) Principal's Invitational Quotient, and (e) The Computed Accreditation Performance Index of their respective school district. The foundation for this study evolved as an extension of earlier research (Asbill, 1994) that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Job Satisfaction, Principals, Administrator Effectiveness, School...
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has greatly affected the current status of career and technical education (CTE). Since the implementation of NCLB, there has been increased course-taking in science, math, and the other traditional academic subjects by high school students in this country. Research shows that the consequence has been a loss of opportunity for many students to enroll in CTE--resulting in declines in CTE enrollments at the secondary level. A 2002 study found that over the coming...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Technical Education, Teacher Education Programs, Vocational...
Many educational initiatives have been and continue to be based on a macro-social system understanding of communal roles, values, norms, interactions, perceptions, and realities. This practice neglects the unique impediments and social norms that exist within the myriad of micro-social systems in the United States. This work draws attention to the disassociation of America's inner-city youth through an analysis of educational initiatives and macro-social system beliefs that have prescribed a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Youth, Urban Areas, Educational Improvement, Critical Theory, Educational...
This article describes the efforts of a combinatorial approach of Schools Around the World (SAW) and Understanding by Design (UbD) to create a foundation for lesson study efforts based on the Japanese model. UbD provides a framework for study units rich in essential content, assessment practices and well-crafted activities. SAW and lesson study provide strategy to determine if both student work and teacher assignment meet intended goals and standards. The author discusses staff selection and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Science Process Skills, Lesson Plans, Science Education, Models,...
This article is a response to "Mapping educational research and its impact on Australian schools," Chapter 2 of The Impact of Educational Research, in which researchers Allyson Holbrook, John Ainley, Sid Bourke, John Owen, Philip McKenzie, Sebastian Mission and Trevor Johnson report on their Commonwealth Education Department commissioned study. They mined the Australian Education Index and the Bibliography of Education Theses in Australia for patterns in education research in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Research, Educational Improvement, Program Effectiveness, Foreign...
Everybody is doing it: differentiating curriculum to make it deeper, broader, parallel, and more complex. No longer the private property of gifted specialists, differentiation is now a democratic pursuit of classroom teachers, curriculum specialists, and anyone else who subscribes to "Educational Leadership." In an era of competency-based tests that seek to measure schools and students on the lowest common denominator--"Who knows their basic skills?"--differentiation has...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Improvement, Instructional Leadership, Academically Gifted, Educational...
In this article, we focus on the role and actions of individual school leaders in initiating and governing the process of reculturing. First, we elaborate on the core elements of the process of reculturing, referring to a complex learning process of finding a new balance between cognitions and emotions both individually and collectively. We then review the literature for issues related to school leaders' roles and actions during reculturing. We argue that the role of leadership power largely...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Role, Educational Innovation, Instructional Leadership, Teaching Methods,...
How should district and school leaders improve education for students traditionally underserved by public education: by increasing control over teaching and curriculum, or by empowering groups of teachers to have more collective autonomy, responsibility, and opportunities for professional learning? The second approach--promoting multiple trajectories of learning among groups of teachers--has advantages, as well as some challenges, as a means of closing various achievement gaps. Sociocultural...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Teacher Collaboration, Educational Change, English (Second...
To define what is special about the education of students with severe disabilities, this article provides a snapshot of research-based practices that are relevant to the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) focus on accountability. The NCLB requirement to assess all students in reading, math, and science is contrasted to the functional approach typical of skill acquisition research for this population. The concept of adequate yearly progress is addressed by reviewing the types of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Federal Legislation, Educational Improvement, Accountability,...
The increasing use of school advisory councils for budgetary decision making is an obvious trend in new patterns of school governance. As decision makers, council members are lobbied by groups and individuals desiring funding for their particular interests. Problems that need attention are judiciously considered as competing interests vie for limited resources. A challenge then for the councils is to make spending choices that are most likely to improve learning outcomes for all students....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Interests, Governance, Accountability, Organizational Development, Advisory...
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the district temporarily lost 100% of its students and did not reopen a single school for more than two months. As it became apparent that the district was not prepared to bring the schools back from such a devastating blow, educators began to see a silver lining in Katrina's dark clouds. State School Board member Leslie Jacobs said, "The Diaspora of New Orleans represents the opportunity to rebuild our public school system" (Inskeep, 2005b)....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, State Schools, Public Schools, Boards of Education, Board of Education...
The increased emphasis on standards-based school accountability since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is focusing critical attention on the professional development of school principals and their ability to meet the challenges of improving student outcomes. While rural school districts are dealing with many of the same issues facing urban districts, there are unique challenges that rural school principals face. However, effective professional development that addresses the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, School Restructuring, Federal Legislation, Educational Change,...
This article describes the approach of a five-year initiative, funded by the National Science Foundation, to improve the teaching of mathematics and science in 10 rural school districts of Missouri. Traditional challenges of improving the professional practice of teachers are addressed through a regional partnership. External project evaluation results reveal specific teacher challenges, the change strategy of the Ozark Rural Systemic Initiative (ORSI), and what teachers value most. Continuous,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Change Strategies, Rural Schools, Teacher Effectiveness, Educational Change,...
The Rural Education Bureau of the New Mexico Public Education Department has established a program to address the special needs of schools and communities in the extensive rural areas of the state. High poverty rates, depopulation and a general lack of viable economic opportunity have marked rural New Mexico for decades. The program underway aims at establishing holistic community socioeconomic revitalization at the grass roots level with the schools playing a leading role. Initiatives include...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Economic Progress, Poverty, Foreign Countries, Rural Development, Community...
Adequate yearly progress (AYP) on No Child Left Behind criteria was examined for a randomly selected sample of districts that qualify for the Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP). The sample involved 10% of districts that were eligible for the Small Rural Schools Achievement (SRSA) program and 10% that were eligible for the Rural and Low-income Schools (RLIS) program. Based on district reports, nearly 80% of SRSA schools made AYP, 11% failed, and 11% did not have adequate data. For...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Federal Legislation, Educational Improvement, Rural Education,...
Helping schools create environments where all students can learn is a worthwhile mission for schools big and small. Both multi and single site districts agree that providing equitable and meaningful learning opportunities for every student is essential, but find this challenging and difficult. What are the systemic factors that limit educators in considering new educational paradigms that might structure schools differently, increase learning outcomes for a wider spectrum of students, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Educational Environment, School Size, Change Strategies,...
Schools in 47 high-poverty school districts located mostly along the Atlantic Coast of North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia may have a head start on new requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, thanks to a $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Begun in April 2000, the five-year Coastal Rural Systemic Initiative (CRSI) is striving to stimulate sustainable systemic improvements in science and mathematics education in school districts with a long...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Poverty, Federal Legislation, Disadvantaged Youth, School Districts,...
Many hidden assumptions, attitudes, and procedures are practiced routinely in schools without much thought or analysis. One possible explanation for their occurrence is that educators become comfortable with familiar routines and believe they must be doing OK because that's the way schools have always operated. Another likely possibility involves a combination of factors including a lack of time, expertise, energy, or money to look thoughtfully into these issues. In this article, the author...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Educational Attitudes, Educational Policy, Educational...
Historically, elementary science teacher inservice has not been an effective means of improving science teaching for most elementary teachers. "Guidelines for Effective Elementary Science Teacher Inservice Education" were developed by Klein (2001) to address this need. This paper illustrates, through a review of program evaluation documentation, how the guidelines were implemented in an elementary science teacher inservice education program. (Contains 4 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary School Science, Inservice Teacher Education, Program Evaluation,...
This article attempts to trace the origins of competency-based training (CBT), the theory of vocational education that underpins the National Training Framework in Australia. A distinction is made between societal and theoretical origins. This paper argues that CBT has its societal origins in the United States of America during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. Public debate and government initiatives centred on the widely held view that there was a problem with the quality of education in the United...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Systems Approach, Foreign Countries, Vocational Education, Educational History,...
Richard Murnane observes that the American ideal of equality of educational opportunity has for years been more the rhetoric than the reality of the nation's political life. Children living in poverty, he notes, tend to be concentrated in low-performing schools staffed by ill-equipped teachers. They are likely to leave school without the skills needed to earn a decent living in a rapidly changing economy. Murnane describes three initiatives that the federal government could take to improve the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Poverty, Graduation Rate, Federal Legislation, School Choice, Program Effectiveness,...
Whether adolescents from immigrant and ethnic minority families will make a successful transition to adulthood hinges on their educational achievement, their acquisition of employable skills and abilities, and their physical and mental health. This article focuses on the extent to which diverse adolescents are prepared for adulthood according to these three critical developmental outcomes. It finds that, in general, adolescents from Latino and African American backgrounds appear to be less...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Health, Health Insurance, Adolescents, Immigrants, Financial Support,...
There is increasing recognition of the role of self-study in building teachers' knowledge base. As teachers make decisions about what and how to teach, they draw upon a knowledge base that includes numerous types of knowledge. This knowledge base is not static, but rather changes and expands throughout one's teaching career. An important method for expanding one's knowledge base is through critical inquiry and reflection on one's practice. In this article, the author focuses on one component of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Elementary Secondary Education, Knowledge Base for Teaching, Teaching Methods,...
This article presents a professional development initiative developed by a university-school partnership based on the Japanese lesson-study model described by Stigler and Hiebert (1999) in "The Teaching Gap." Lesson study ("jugyoukenkyu"), an inquiry model of teacher professional development, is used extensively throughout Japan and has begun to capture the attention of the American educational community as a potential strategy for enhancing teacher professional development...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Teacher Characteristics, Active Learning, Foreign Countries,...
This article reports on a method developed for teacher self development that is grounded in the classroom and within the everyday repertoire of skills and resources available for teachers. It is developed under the general rubric of action research, which positions teachers as insider researchers of their own practice. Action research techniques attempt to engage teachers with their practice, to heighten their awareness of action within the process that affects change in the classroom. For this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Action Research, Professional Development, Teaching Methods,...
Under the broad banner of education, training, and collaboration across systems, this paper examines, through analysis of seven individual projects, issues and insights associated with three central themes: (1) the link between ECD programs and children's school readiness; (2) the promotion of parenting enrichment programs as a childcare quality enhancement strategy and the fostering of parent-school collaborations; and (3) curricular design for personnel training and strategies for (a)...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Readiness, Program Development, Partnerships in Education, Improvement...
Increasingly, the viability of university programs to develop in school leaders the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to bring about reform are being questioned. This article uses case study methodology for looking at how an increasing emphasis on collaborative inquiry in one university's program influenced a school principal several years after that principal had completed his master's degree program in educational leadership. The principal explains his approach to accountability and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Instructional Leadership, Educational Improvement, Principals,...
This paper recounts one instructor's importing action research into teaching to improve a Tier II Professional Administrative Services Credential program at a public university in California. The state and local context is described, why and how the action research was conducted, and the lessons that emerged about what advanced students need, prefer, and value are included. The findings of this case are of interest to leadership preparation faculty in general, and specifically to those faculty...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Credentials, Action Research, Leadership, Public Colleges, Student Evaluation,...
This multi-site case study examined the relationships and interactions among school professionals, parents, and a faith-based institution striving to create viable learning communities in the Texas Borderlands. Through a school-community partnership known as the Texas Alliance School Initiative, two sample schools collaborated with the El Paso Interreligious Sponsoring Organization, a local faith-based institution, to facilitate parental engagement with the school and to meaningfully connect...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Qualitative Research, Research Methodology, Parents, Case Studies, School Community...
This author states that too many young people who graduate from high school and enter postsecondary education are ill prepared, and their chances for success in college are diminished significantly. The disconnect of academic expectations between postsecondary education and K-12 is one of the primary reasons for the poor preparation of so many high school graduates. The American Diploma Project (ADP), led by Achieve in partnership with the Education Trust and the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Preparation, Elementary Secondary Education, Academic Achievement, High...
The face of New England is changing. Immigrant populations, people from low-income families, and young people of color are now among the fastest-growing populations in New England. In addition, the foundation of the region's economic prosperity is expected to be intellectual. In this article, the authors discuss how New England's six land-grant universities--the Universities of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont--are best positioned to assume leadership...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Land Grant Universities, Leadership, Low Income Groups, Immigrants, Educational...
Culturally diverse students, as a collective group, are a sizable and growing population. Large numbers of students with language and cultural experiences different from the mainstream population will continue to enter schools in growing numbers throughout the next decades. Historically, their level of academic achievement has lagged significantly behind that of their English language-dominant peers. If schools are to meet the challenge of educating culturally diverse student populations,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Academic Achievement, Second Language Learning, English (Second...
The most important date in the Boston University Chelsea Partnership was not the day in 1989 when the initial partnership agreement was signed. Nor was it the date in 1997 when the School Committee voted unanimously to renew the partnership for five additional years. If an objective history of the Boston University-Chelsea Partnership were written, Sept. 12, 1991 would be the date that would loom largest. This was the day the Commonwealth placed the City of Chelsea in receivership because...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Partnerships in Education, Program Effectiveness, Case Studies, College School...
University Park Campus School (UPCS), which opened in 1997, is among the most innovative aspects of Clark's nationally prominent multimillion-dollar revitalization effort to clean up Worcester's deteriorating Main South neighborhood and encourage staff and faculty to buy homes there. The school, like the broader initiative, is the product of a model partnership among Clark, Worcester Public Schools, the Worcester School Committee, Main South Community Development Corp., city agencies including...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Neighborhoods, Laboratory Schools, Economic Impact, Community Schools, Effective...
Universities have long practiced data collection techniques to gain insights and direction from their graduates, but public high schools are just now beginning to use this process to gather input from those who know the system the best--their alumni. Because past students' reflections on their high school education can indicate the level of success of their high schools' programs and practices, principals can use this information to identify areas needing improvement and then develop strategies...
Topics: ERIC Archive, High Schools, Alumni, Educational Change, Graduate Surveys, Formative Evaluation,...
This study examined the congruence between the priorities of the Manitoba Government's "Kindergarten to Senior 4 (K-S4) Education Agenda for Student Success" and priorities of stakeholders in a rural Manitoba school division, and the division's capacity to achieve them. Capacity included three components for success: Legitimization of Alternatives, Diverse Networks, and Resource Mobilization. The findings suggest that the theoretical conceptualizations of how rural areas develop...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Restructuring, Academic Achievement, Educational Change, Foreign Countries,...
My subject is what the practice of education can learn from the arts. I describe the forms of thinking the arts evoke and their relevance for re-framing conceptions of what education can accomplish. (Contains 1 note.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Standards, Educational Improvement, Educational Practices,...
This paper examines the progress of one state in implementing the middle school concept. Results of a survey distributed in 1990 were compared to results of a similar survey distributed in the spring of 2004. Progress or the lack thereof has been noted. Implications from this survey can serve to heighten awareness and continue to improve the quality of middle level education. (Contains 1 figure and 10 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Middle Schools, Comparative Analysis, Educational Quality, Educational Improvement,...
Using the new "emerging adulthood" developmental period (Arnett, 2000) as a theoretical framework, this article emphasizes the challenges faced by emerging adults (17- to 24-year-olds) enrolled in adult education. First, emerging adulthood as a developmental period and the additional difficulties experienced by youths with emotional, behavioral and school disabilities during this period are briefly discussed. Then, a description of adult education within the Quebec's school system and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Adult Education, Young Adults, Foreign Countries, Intervention, Developmental Stages,...
Although claiming leadership to be critical to school improvement, few studies seek the informative voice of principals regarding their understandings of roles and sources of leadership. Using a distributed perspective as a theoretical lens to reconceptualize leadership, this article explores principals' perspectives of leadership in relation to their roles as defined by legislation and policy. By examining the primary merits and limitations of Spillane's (2006) distributed framework,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Principals, Administrator Attitudes, Administrator Role, Instructional Leadership,...
This paper presents a report on students who decided to drop out of the BSc program offered by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). This study was designed to determine the reasons leading to students' decisions to withdraw from the program. Identified and reported in this study are nine major reasons leading to drop out. Results of this study lead to several suggestions for improving current instructional and delivery strategies of IGNOU's BSc Programme. Following such suggestions...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Open Universities, Dropout Rate, Dropouts, Foreign Countries, Withdrawal (Education),...
Calls for accountability in America's schools have created increased responsibilities for educational leaders. In this article, we describe and discuss a study of elementary, middle, and high school principals' perceptions of the state-wide educational accountability program in North Carolina. The respondents indicated that the state's accountability program has had its greatest impact on how they monitored student achievement, aligned the curriculum to the testing program, provided student...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Testing Programs, Sanctions, School Safety, Federal Legislation, Educational...
Issues related to student, teacher, and school accountability have been at the forefront of current educational policy initiatives. Recently, the state of Massachusetts has become a focal point in debate regarding the efficacy of highstakes accountability models based on an ostensibly large gain at 10th grade. This paper uses an IRT method for evaluating the validity of 10th grade performance gains from 2000 to 2001 on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests in English...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Validity, Grade 10, Accountability, Educational Policy, Academic...
This research project examined student performance in middle schools with a grade configuration of six through eight. Schools were categorized into two groups: high-performing middle schools--middle schools making adequate yearly progress for two consecutive school years, and low-performing middle schools--middle schools not making adequate yearly progress for two consecutive school years. Participants included 283 middle school teachers, 171 from high-performing middle schools, and 112 from...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Middle Schools, Grouping (Instructional Purposes), Educational Improvement,...
Because teachers' efforts are central to the success of standards-based reform, it behooves the policy community to look carefully at the beliefs about instruction that are rooted in this reform theory. Building on teacher-centric research on standards-based reform and ideas about teaching practice from research on multicultural education, this paper focuses on the assumptions embedded in Washington state's approach. Survey data from a representative sample of teachers suggest that the state's...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multicultural Education, Educational Change, Accountability, State Standards,...