Meeting the requirement for highly qualified teachers as outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act has left school districts in a quandary, especially those that serve a population of students deemed "at-risk" and where attracting and retaining highly qualified teachers is difficult. One professional development program based on recognized strategies for exemplary teaching--the National Board for Professional Teaching Standard's five core propositions--is being tested in one school...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, National Standards, Program Effectiveness, School Districts,...
Almost non-existent five years ago, the use of online courses has grown dramatically in Maryland, with more than 25 courses now available. Online course enrollments have also increased from 31 students in 2003 to more than 600 in 2006. A major reason for this remarkable growth has been the Maryland Students Online Consortium (MSOC), a state-local partnership involving two-thirds of Maryland's 24 school systems (23 counties, one city) and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE). MSOC...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Online Courses, Counties, Consortia, Cooperation, Enrollment,...
Standards are a reality in all academic disciplines, and they can be hard to measure using conventional methods. Technology skills in particular are hard to assess using multiple-choice, paper-based tests. A new generation of online assessments of student technology skills allows students to prove proficiency by completing tasks in their natural environment, are self-correcting so they save teacher time, and quickly and easily report scores. This article discusses five online technology...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Computers, Educational Technology, Case Studies, Federal Legislation, Pretests...
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,...
Ever since technology became a major component in education, schools have been charged with teaching and integrating technology to enhance learning and ensure technology literacy. However, there is still no consistent definition, process, or assessment in place, leading to concerns about accountability. Because technology standards are seemingly arbitrary and open to multiple interpretations, each school district, each school, and even each teacher will have to develop their own definition,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Industry, Federal Legislation, Technology Integration, Educational Technology,...
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,...
Students have problems in their lives, but can teachers help them? Should teachers help? The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act and its emphasis on standardized test results have forced school systems to produce high scores, and in turn school administrators pressure teachers to prepare students for taking standardized tests. Teachers may want to deal with students' problems, but a required curriculum emphasizing skill drills has compromised teaching time. Teachers are not free to determine what...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Needs, Federal Legislation, Teacher Responsibility, Problem Solving,...
Many school leaders today, not to mention many teachers, view "accountability" as a loathsome political monster. Looming over educators, insensitive to the many problems they face, it wields the carrot of rewards in one hand and the club of sanctions in the other. Some educators even blame accountability for perverting their noble purposes, twisting their sensibilities, and corrupting their integrity. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability system seeks to improve all...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Instructional Leadership, Accountability, Federal Legislation, Educational...
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...
The United States faces an economic-influenced educational crisis. According to the U.S. Department of Commence, Census Bureau data (2002) the difference in household earnings between the upper and lower quintiles has worsened over the last forty years. Future generations possess suspect knowledge to properly manage this income, as youth possess very low financial literacy levels. Determining benchmarks relevant to all societal dimensions presents a challenge to developing financial education...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Economics Education, Incentives, Consumer Education, Economic...
This article presents an excerpt of a declaration from the United States Department of Education's "Strategic Plan: 2002-2007." The declaration signifies in no uncertain terms that the battle waged by critics of alternative research methods continues, and is likely to intensify. The denigration of research methods which decline to adhere to the trappings of logical positivism may have begun with Rene Descartes, but the origins of the dispute between positivists and post-positivists...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Strategic Planning, Rhetorical Criticism, Public Education, Educational Research,...
Given the implementation of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, one might reasonably assume that the research literature on the effects of standardized testing would have been exposed, made widely familiar, and meticulously analyzed in the early 2000s. But just the opposite happened. As belief in the research literature's nonexistence has spread, efforts to reference it have become less thorough or casually dismissed. After all, why bother to search a literature you believe does not exist? As...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Literature, Standardized Tests, Educational Policy, Literature...
The importance of arts education has long been recognized. Years ago, John Dewey (1934, vii) argued that, in arts education, "learning is controlled by two great principles: one that participation is something inherently worth while, or undertaken on its own account; the other is perception of the relation of means to consequences... A third consideration [focuses on] skill and technique." Today, the arts are taught in schools as disciplines providing unique cores of understandings,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Art Education, Adolescents, Secondary School Students, Art...
Although numerous studies have investigated autism methodology case law, few studies have investigated case law regarding reading methodology, particularly the Orton-Gillingham approach, for students with reading disabilities. We provide the results of a systematic case analysis of all published Orton-Gillingham decisions from the original passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) through 2005. Results indicate that in the past 30 years, hearing/review officers and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Difficulties, Autism, Courts, Disabilities, Court Litigation, Federal...
The current U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) emphasis on the preparation of teachers in content knowledge, and de-emphasis on pedagogy and teaching practicums, constitutes a major issue concerning how best to prepare a sufficient supply of highly qualified teachers. By contrast, federal policy represented by the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) emphasizes both full certification and content knowledge. Our research was based on data from the Schools and Staffing Survey for beginning...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Teaching, Practicums, General Education, Special Education, Pedagogical...
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,...
Across the United States the state education agency (SEA) is a "sleeping giant" with untapped potential to build instructional capacity in the nation's 110,000 public schools. The SEA is positioned to build the system-wide synergy requisite to achieve the unprecedented school-level student outcomes mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In this article, the authors illustrate this system-wide potential of the SEA by using the case of Kentucky, based on interviews with its...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Educational Change, State Departments of Education, Politics of...
Schools employ educational technology to comply with pressures for greater accountability and efficiency in conducting operations. Specifically, schools use "management information systems" designed to automate data collection of student attendance, grades, test scores, and so on. These management information systems (MIS) employed widespread use of technology to enable effective and efficient school operations in order to promote school accountability. In this case study, the authors...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Attendance, Management Information Systems, Educational Technology, Accountability,...
This article describes a school where at-risk students get an opportunity to finish their secondary education in a smaller learning environment that embraces hands-on learning, one in which each student's strengths and weaknesses are known, and teachers work with their wards to give them an academic and technical education that will help them succeed post high school. Chana High School is a continuation school located approximately four miles north of downtown Auburn near Sacramento,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Classroom Techniques, Federal Legislation, Educational Finance, High Risk Students,...
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 focuses on the challenge of teacher retention in rural schools in relation to the No Child Left Behind mandate, that school districts must attract and retain highly qualified teachers. This case study examines the extent to which a rural school enhanced teacher retention by overcoming the barriers that might otherwise have presented a challenge to teacher retention. Findings from this study suggest that the nurturing the nurturers concept, inherent in teacher resiliency-building...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Federal Legislation, Teacher Persistence, School Holding Power, Labor...
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,...
The requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) have presented special challenges and opportunities for rural schools (Reeves, 2003). Researchers have suggested that one way rural schools may be able to overcome these challenges is through an increase in the level of technology integration in their school (Collins & Dewees, 2001). This case study reports on one school's attempt to use grant resources funded through NCLB to integrate specific instructional technologies to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, School Culture, Federal Legislation, Technology Integration,...
Across the country, states are concentrating efforts to meet the requirements and the spirit of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The implementation provisions and timelines are demanding and challenging for all districts. NCLB is particularly daunting, however, for rural and small districts. This paper outlines the characteristics of rural schools and districts that create special problems in implementing the legislation and summarizes the major challenges of the NCLB for these districts. (Contains...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Federal Legislation, Educational Legislation, Compliance (Legal),...
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,...
The Principals Excellence Program (PEP), a cohort-based professional development project for administrator-certified practitioners, is one of 24 projects across the United States supported by federal funds from the No Child Left Behind legislation. The three-year program is conducted through a partnership between Pike County School District, a high-need rural system in Central Appalachia, and the University of Kentucky, located 150 miles away. A major goal for PEP is improved school leadership...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mentors, Federal Legislation, Holistic Evaluation, Leadership Effectiveness, School...
As amply documented by "evangelical/liberal" Jim Wallis in his new "God's Politics", any country can be profoundly improved by voices of faith, hope, and love whose appeals are to reason, conscience, and civility, and who have avoided the entrapments of partisanship. Among such voices have been those of Martin Luther King, Desmond Tutu, Mohandas Gandhi, and John Paul II. The "high wall of separation" metaphor was written into federal law only with the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Jews, Privatization, Federal Legislation, State Church Separation, Public Schools,...
Modern teachers live in age of accountability, in which their success as educators is determined by individual and group mastery of specific standards demonstrated by standardized test performance. Even before No Child Left Behind (NCLB), standards and measures were used to determine if schools and students were successful. But NCLB has increased the pace, intensity, and high stakes of this trend. Gifted and talented students are significantly impacted by these local or state proficiency...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Federal Legislation, Talent, Standardized Tests, Accountability,...
The issue of research dissemination via websites is part of the larger research utilization question, and the authors begin with a review of literature on the theory and best practices in dissemination. The second part of the study involves an exploratory examination of the websites and dissemination practices of 30 research centers focusing on the field of family-school partnership issues. Using the literature review as a guide to look at the websites, the researchers rate each website and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Utilization, Family School Relationship, Web Sites, Literature Reviews,...
This article examines the contribution of the No Child Left Behind Act. The authors believe that the "other means" that can substantially advance equal educational opportunity are to provide "meaningful educational opportunities" for all children in each of the schools that they attend. In this article, the authors discuss meaningful educational opportunity and describe the statutory framework for implementing this standard.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Equal Education, Federal Legislation, Educational Opportunities, Federal Programs,...
This article addresses how teacher preparation programs can best respond to the broad, complex calls for reform in ways that are locally meaningful and honor academic integrity, but that are also true to the intent of the reform mandates. The authors begin with an overview of some of the federal and state initiatives that are presenting challenges for schools and teacher preparation programs. They then look at "lessons learned" from several teacher preparation programs that have...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, College School Cooperation, Teacher Educators, Teacher Education...
In the 1990s, fueled by the momentum of the inclusive schools movement, where students with disabilities were being encouraged to participate in their neighborhood schools and adults with disabilities were self-advocating for a chance at community independence, the collaboration model among professionals burgeoned as best practice for serving individuals with disabilities. However, although the concept of collaboration was recognized as a best practice initiative, most service providers were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Attitudes, Disabilities, Cooperation, College Faculty, Teacher Collaboration,...
Traditionally, students with disabilities have been denied a voice in where or how they should receive their education. Much of the literature about education for adolescents focused on both non-disabled students' and teachers' perceptions of working with students with disabilities. Although there is limited research that examines the perceptions of high school students with disabilities towards their education, the existing literature indicates that most students want to do well in school and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Attitudes, School Attitudes, Student Experience, Disabilities, Educational...
The passage of the 1997 Amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as well as the increased numbers of students with disabilities being educated part or full time in general education classes, create significant challenges for teacher preparation programs for both special and general education teachers. In response to legislative and policy changes, a growing number of schools and districts across the United States are adopting inclusive education models that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Inclusive Schools, General Education, Disabilities, Special Education Teachers,...
Developing enough quality credentialed teachers to meet the needs of America's children is the paramount goal of teacher education programs and school districts across the country and, since 2001, required by the federal mandate, No Child Left Behind (U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2002). However, according to a 2002 report, "Rather than getting closer to a qualified teacher in every classroom, the data indicate that we are drifting farther from...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Federal Legislation,...
PL 94-142, the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, was a landmark legislation at it assured "access" to public education for all children, without regard for disabling condition. In this article, the author presents a brief history of PL 94-142 and describes the significant and important changes in special education services since 1975. She discusses that the notion of equal educational opportunity for all students, including those with disabilities, is now part of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Civil Rights, Equal Education, Disabilities, Educational Opportunities, Public...
On November 29, 1975 then President Ford signed the "Education of All Handicapped Children Act" (EAHCA) into law, mandating for the first time that children and youth with disabilities be afforded the right to a free and appropriate public education, individualized programming, parental participation in the decision making process, nondiscriminatory identification and evaluation, instruction in the least restrictive environment, while ensuring families due process rights and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Civil Rights, General Education, Disabilities, Access to Education, Special...
This article presents a panel discussion held to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), commonly referred to as PL 94-142. The panel discussion was one part of a statewide Commemoration in California. A seven member panel, consisting of families and educators were invited to share their experiences with special education since the passage of PL 94-142 in 1975. The panel members' stories provide a picture about where special education began and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Special Education, Public Education, Focus Groups, Federal Legislation, Policy...
PL 94-142 fundamentally changed the lives of children with disabilities, families, and professionals. The policy opened school doors for all children, regardless of the type or degree of their disability. This article examines the policy in its historical context with a framework grounded in social sciences. The historical analysis is helpful in understanding some of the more recent changes, shifts, and dynamics in special education. The article begins with a review of the legislative road of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Social Sciences, Disabilities, Federal Legislation, Educational Policy, Special...
The author of this article challenges a common assumption made by both critics and defenders of standardized-testing technology (or psychometry), namely that standardized tests "measure" something (culture, ability, etc.). It argues that psychometric practice cannot be classified as a form of measurement and instead is best understood as a marker of social value, an inherently political act. The chapter concludes by suggesting the significance of this argument for debates regarding...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Assessment, Social Values, Psychometrics, Standardized Tests,...
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,...
In Mark Greenberg's view, a national child care strategy should pursue four goals. Every parent who needs child care to get or keep work should be able to afford care without having to leave children in unhealthy or dangerous environments; all families should be able to place their children in settings that foster education and healthy development; parental choice should be respected; and a set of good choices should be available. Attaining these goals, says Greenberg, requires revamping both...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Poverty, Family Income, Tax Credits, Federal Government, Block Grants, Low Income...
Over the past seventy years Congress has enacted dozens of tax and transfer programs, giving little if any attention to the marriage subsidies and penalties that they inadvertently impose. Although the programs affect both rich and poor Americans, the penalties fall most heavily on low- or moderate-income households with children. In this article, Adam Carasso and Eugene Steuerle review important penalties and subsidies, explain how they work, and help fill a big research gap by beginning to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Transfer Programs, Tax Rates, Income, Family (Sociological Unit), Marriage, Grants,...
A growing number of children over age 10 reside in and emancipate from foster care every year. Older children face many of the same challenges as younger children, but they also have unique developmental needs. This article discusses older children in the child welfare system and finds: (1) Approximately 47% of children in foster care are over age 11, and in 2001, 20% of children leaving foster care were over age 16; (2) Older children need permanency, stability, and a "forever...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Daily Living Skills, Substance Abuse, Homeless People, Educational Attainment, Child...
Even though federal laws have had a major influence on foster care and child welfare policy for more than 40 years, additional reforms are needed to ensure safe and stable families for children in care. This article describes the complex array of policies that shape federal foster care and observes: A number of federal policies addressing issues such as housing, health care, welfare, social security benefits, taxes, and foster care reimbursement to the states, form the federal foster care...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Safety, Courts, Child Welfare, Foster Care, Public Policy, Family Environment,...
In this essay the author attempts to distinguish space as a social aspect of education, see it as a force that shapes the space called school, and evaluate the ability of that public space to represent the needs and desires of the constituents it serves, tackling the essential foundations driving progressive education; seeing and living in the intersections between democracy, freedom, learning, and ownership indispensable to a modern civil state. He argues that "No Child Left Behind"...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Development, Federal Legislation, Democracy, Educational Change, Public...
The current movement in spirituality is extending into both K-12 and higher education. There is discussion at both levels of the need for the spiritual (not religion) to be a recognized part of the curriculum, to enable individuals to find personal meaning in the curriculum. This essay explores two themes--first, the importance of educators having a deep understanding of the purpose and meaning of their work, and of themselves in relation to that work; and second, the need for educators to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Curriculum Development, Elementary Secondary Education, Federal Legislation,...
Contemporary American culture has taken on protecting children from the consequences of their own actions so much that parents are raising children for whom being responsible for one's own actions and one's own work is anathema to "good parenting." Unlike the culture of the past, many parents spend hours on end with their children under the guise of "helping them" with their homework. Many parents complain about the time spent doing homework with their children, and the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Homework, Federal Legislation, Academic Persistence, Academic Achievement, Student...
The authors of this article discuss wellness policies in relation to nutrition education. The article describes some of the most interesting national initiatives for engaging students in nutrition education and encouraging healthy eating. For example, programs such as the Vermont FEED program and the Burlington School Food Project involve students in the selection, growth, preparation, and service of the foods offered in their school meals. This article also provides suggestions for how the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Nutrition, Wellness, Nutrition Instruction, Federal Legislation, Public Schools, Food...
Stem cells are being touted as the greatest discovery for the potential treatment of a myriad of diseases in the new millennium, but there is still much research to be done before it will be known whether they can live up to this description. There is also an ethical debate over the production of one of the most valuable types of stem cell: the embryonic form. Consequently, there is public confusion over the benefits currently being derived from the use of stem cells and what can potentially be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Ethics, Diseases, Medical Research, Scientific Research, Cytology,...