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The book "Educating for Democracy" by Walter Feinberg explores the connection between education and democracy. The author argues that citizenship education should be infused throughout the curriculum, rather than confined to specific courses. The book discusses the importance of reflection and moral discernment in democratic citizenship, as well as the role of different subject domains in educating for democracy. While the book does not provide specific examples of classroom practices, it encourages readers to reflect on their own experiences and consider how education can contribute to a more democratic society. [Extracted from the article]

Purpose: Drawing upon research into standards reform, and theorizing of professional and political capital, this article seeks to understand the development of and advocacy for the Next Generation Science Standards in the United States. As well as revealing how professional capital exists in three dimensions—human, social, and decisional—the research argues professional capital also needs to be understood as inherently political. Research Methods/Approach: The research draws upon interviews and discussions with key educators who developed and supported the Next Generation Science Standards at state and national levels. Findings: The article reveals political capital as vital for promoting educational standards reform, managing perceptions of reform, and making pragmatic decisions to ground reform in context. Political capital is a complex, contingent capacity vital to the development and acceptance of science education reform. Implications: Findings have implications for understanding power dynamics that characterize reform in schooling systems and professional contexts more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) initiative for K-12 education has been adopted by 45 states and will have a broad impact on American education al institutions, including libraries. The CCSS focus on close reading of informational texts, inquiry learning, and college and career readiness with an emphasis on assessment and accountability. This research study used a focusgroup approach to provide a framework for asking school librarians from two states about the future of teaching and learning and th e types of challenges they envision for the future. The datacollected were then aligned with CCSS to better understand the p otential impact for patrons of all types of libraries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

UNESCO's eight-volume General History of Africa (GHA) was a politically engaged but scholarly endeavor that aimed to Africanize the writing of African history. It did so partly through an expulsion of historical explanations that hinged on the idea that greatness had been transported into Africa from the outside. This article shows how the GHA developed scholarly standards while at the same time grappling with the political tension inherent in a move away from European colonialist historiography. It was specifically during the editing of the chapter written by Cheikh Anta Diop on the origins of the ancient Egyptians that political imperatives seemed to clash with standards of academic rigor and scholarly methods. This article offers an analysis of reports produced by the GHA during the editing of the series to show how the GHA navigated these tensions and why they chose to include the Diop chapter even if not all historians working on the GHA agreed with it. The article thereby shows how a decolonization of history took place in historiographical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vietnam has achieved near-universal access to compulsory schooling over the past two decades. However, inequalities between ethnic majority and minority students are stark at post-compulsory levels, where progression is selective based on academic criteria and ability to pay. In this article, we adopt a mixed-methods approach to examine quality and equity for ethnic minority students in upper secondary education. Across five provinces, we find that ethnic minority students attend "less effective" upper secondary schools than ethnic majority students. However, an in-depth case study of an ethnic minority boarding school in Lao Cai province provides an example of positive deviance. Guided by a targeted affirmative action policy, the provincial government invests a relatively high level of resources to provide fee-free, high-quality schooling for gifted ethnic minority students. We consider the extent to which such policies can redress socioeconomic inequalities in Vietnam, and wider lessons for creating more equitable education systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries continue to follow a policy of clustering educational provision by disciplinary stream as developed during the British colonial era. Whether such an approach enables education to fulfill its developmental purpose is still open to debate. Using multiple qualitative tools, this study investigates the impact of clustering education in Bangladesh. The findings suggest that the clustering system favors science graduates, creating an atmosphere of educational disparity. This disparity affects the symbiotic and reciprocal relationship that exists between different levels (i.e., secondary, tertiary) of education. The clustering system further contributes to a larger "horizontal educational mismatch" in the job market. As a consequence, it is argued that, in Bangladesh, the education system fails adequately to support social and economic developments. This article suggests a revision of the prevailing policy to address the constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information on the report "A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education," by the commission appointed by Secretary of Education, U.S., Margaret Spellings, of the U.S. Department of Education. The report provides general recommendations on how to improve higher education in the U.S. The report is recommended for all librarians in an academic environment. Some of the recommendations included in the report are that the U.S. should be committed to expand higher education access and success, the student financial aid system should be restructured, and higher education must be primarily based on performance rather than reputation. These concerns require the attention of the academic library community.

This article is the first of two that present a six-part conceptual framework for the design and evaluation of digital libraries meant to support mathematics education in K-12 settings (see also pt. 2). This first article concentrates on (i) information organization, (2) information literacy, and (3) integrated learning with multimedia materials. The second article reviews (4) adoption of new standards for mathematics education, (5) integration of pertinent changes in educational policy, and (6) ensuring pedagogic and political accountability. Each article concludes with specific recommendations for digital libraries meant to support K-12 mathematics education appropriate to the topics the article discusses. This framework, which may be of some use to researchers and educators in many settings and countries, emphasizes the importance of communication, community building, and learning activities that use different media for the design of digital functionalities and online collections of mathematics learning materials. The major goal of the framework described here is to consider how to bring the larger computationally intensive collections called digital libraries closer to the existing structures and practices of learners and teachers while recognizing the new functionalities and learning opportunities that digital libraries offer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is the second of two (see pt. 1) that describe a six-part conceptual framework for designing and evaluating digital libraries for mathematics education in K-12 settings: information literacy, information organization, integrated learning, adoption of new educational standards, integration of pertinent changes in educational policy making, and ensuring accountability. This second paper explores the final three elements of the six-part framework. Accountability has become the core of the educational reform initiated by federal policies and measured by state-mandated educational standards. These political circumstances, as well as communication and collaboration, must be constitutively involved in the iterative design, implementation, and evaluation of digital libraries. The paper concludes with a series of recommendations for the design and implementation of digital libraries for K-12 mathematics education based on the authors' discussion of these final three elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critics of standards-based reform often cite an accountability policy environment that disproportionately affects teachers compared with principals and district officials. We directly examine this disproportionality. In our three study states of Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky, we use survey analysis to understand how policy environments for district officials, principals, and teachers differ. We find that in all three states, teachers report experiencing significantly more accountability than do principals. Teachers in every state also report significantly lower authority toward their state's standards. In Texas, these authority gaps predict less coverage of English language arts standards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is limited evidence justifying the economic case for state education policy. Using new measures of workers' cognitive skills that allow for selective internal migration and foreign immigration, we provide preliminary estimates of growth regressions that incorporate worker skills. Our descriptive models show that educational achievement predicts economic growth across US states over the past four decades. Projections from our growth models show the substantial potential scope for state economic development through improving school quality. While we consider the impact of a range of educational reforms, an improvement that moves each state to the best-state level would in the aggregate yield an estimated present value of long-run gains of 8 percent of discounted future GDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted, grading and labeling of schools as low performing have been increasingly used as means to incentivize failing schools to raise student achievement. Using statewide high school data from Michigan, our regression discontinuity analyses show that the bottom 5% of schools identified as persistently lowest achieving (PLA), which is publicly announced and has consequential accountability, increased their student performance in writing and to a lesser extent in mathematics and social studies. The PLA effect in writing is quite robust, based on various sensitivity analyses. We find no improvement in student achievement for the bottom 6% to 20% of schools labeled as "watch list" that received no actual penalties and little public attention. Our findings suggest that schools respond differently to varying forms of labeling as low performing, depending on the levels of accountability pressure and social stigmatization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We investigated the alignment between a teacher survey selfreport measure and classroom observation measure of ambitious mathematics instructional practice among teachers in two urban school districts using two different standards-based mathematics curricula. Survey reports suggested mild differences in teachers' instructional practices between the two districts, whereas observation ratings indicated starker differences. That said, teachers' survey and observer ratings were significantly correlated in both districts. Factors significantly predicting the extent of survey-observation alignment included teachers' grade level, Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching,cognitivedemand,and—foronedistrict—teachers' adherence to the surface-level aspects of their curriculum. Qualitative analyses suggested that teachers' surveyobservation alignment could be a function of their interaction with colleagues who provided instructional models against which they could gauge the extent of their standardsbased instruction. Our study has implications for research on instructional practice, as well as for school district policies to support and evaluate teachers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Common Core State Standards for the English Language Arts, together with the new tests being developed to assess them, are placing a greater emphasis on writing in elementary schools than in the recent past. This article explores similarities and differences of the standards with past state standards, explaining the reason both for why things have been as they are and why Common Core is encouraging change. The biggest shift in writing instruction is claimed to be the new emphasis on writing about text, and ways of writing about text successfully in the elementary grades (summarization, analysis, synthesis, modeling) are described. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By examining the potential of purposefully implemented critical bicultural pedagogy (CBP) for student empowerment, this article responds to Culture and Power in the Classroom: Educational Foundations for the Schooling of Bicultural Students by Antonia Darder (Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2012). Using a theoretical framework based upon student voice, critical pedagogy, and multiculturalism, the article examines the role of CBP in an English-only fourth-grade classroom. The perspectives of eight students undergoing a process of bicultural identity-making in a school where bilingualism is devalued are explored. Although they had internalized the limiting social constructs of race, culture, and language ideologies, through CBP these children transformed into critical individuals able to question, provoke, and analyze the societal status quo. Students who had been socialized to identify with the dominant culture—doing everything possible to "fit in"—took strong positions as emerging bicultural agents of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including educational standards in the U.S., the end of bilingual program to improve student achievement, and teacher-student relationship.

In this article the author examines the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) to argue for changes in "standards-based" perspectives and practices that grew out of No Child Left Behind. Drawing on an article by David T. Conley, cochairman of the Validation Committee for the CCSS, the author offers a new model for the professional educator—the teacher as "pedagogue." Examples from the author's classroom teaching are used to illustrate an interdisciplinary approach to lesson design and delivery, which the CCSS demand. Teaching to the test, college and career readiness, and problem posing are explored to identify recommendations for changes in the roles of teachers and administrators. Implications for professional development are provided based on the goal of teachers becoming pedagogues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study identifies a theoretical mechanism that could potentially affect public university admissions standards in a context of demographic change. I explore how demographic changes at a prestigious public university in the United States affect individuals' evaluations of college applications. Responding to a line graph that randomly displays a freshmen enrollment trend toward a white plurality or an Asian American plurality, white student evaluators lower their minimum class rank standard for admitting white applicants when exposed to an Asian American plurality trend. They also raise the minimum test percentile standard for admitting Asian American applicants. Notably, plurality trend does not affect Asian American student evaluators' minimum standards for recommending admission. Applications differed only by applicant race. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the findings from a comparative analysis that examined several mathematical content strands, reasoning processes, and emphasis on technology in prior K-8 state mathematics standards and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM). Various methodological tools were utilized to compare and contrast CCSSM with prior state standards. Results suggest four primary types of shifts in CCSSM when compared to prior state standards: (1) changes in grade level(s) at which some mathematical content is taught, (2) changes in the number of grade levels in which particular mathematical topics appear, (3) changes in emphasis (increased/decreased) on particular mathematical topics, and (4) changes in the nature and level of reasoning expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study highlights the connections between two facets of teachers' skills--those supporting teachers' mathematical instructional interactions and those underlying social interactions within the classroom. The impact of the Responsive Classroom (RC) approach and use of RC practices on the use of standards-based mathematics teaching practices was investigated in third-grade classrooms. Eighty-eight third-grade teachers from 24 elementary schools in a large suburban district were selected from a sample of teachers participating in a larger randomized-control study. Results showed that teachers at schools assigned randomly to receive training in the RC approach showed higher use of standards-based mathematics teaching practices than teachers in control schools. These findings were supported by analyses using fidelity of implementation: greater adherence to the intervention predicted the use of more standards-based mathematics teaching practices. Findings support the use of the RC approach for creating classroom social environments that facilitate standards-based mathematical practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International comparisons have highlighted that the U.S. mathematics curriculum, both in terms of curriculum influences (e.g., textbooks, standards) and actual instruction, is broad and shallow. Standards-based reform is explicitly designed to improve coherence and reduce redundancy across grades. This article evaluates the redundancy of mathematics instruction after the early years of standards-based reform, using survey data from over 7,000 teachers. Instruction for teachers in consecutive grades in the same school is compared, and the redundancy of instruction is compared with the redundancy of state standards. Results indicate continuing problems of instructional redundancy, with upwards of 60% of instructional time at each grade on content taught in previous grades. Topics are continually introduced to the curriculum but leave more slowly; middle school instruction is broader and more redundant than elementary school instruction. State standards are also highly redundant, though there is no apparent relationship between the redundancy of state standards and the redundancy of instruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to the essay "Individuality, Equality, and Creative Democracy -- the Task Before Us," by Jim Garrison which critiques the standardization of U.S. education reforms. The author argues that standardized tests identify proficiency, believes that the U.S. legislation No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is important to many students, and suggests that state standards do not pose a threat to individuality.

The alignment of instruction with the content of standards and assessments is the key mediating variable separating the policy of standards-based reform (SBR) from the outcome of improved student achievement. Few studies have investigated SBR’s effects on instructional alignment, and most have serious methodological limitations. This research uses content analyses of state standards and assessments and survey data on more than 27,000 teachers’ instruction in mathematics, science, and English/language arts (ELA) to investigate changes in instructional alignment between 2003 and 2009. Fixed-effects models indicate that alignment in grades K–12 mathematics increased by approximately 0.19–0.65 standard deviations, depending on the grade and target. Alignment also increased to grades K–12 standards in ELA and grades 3–8 standards in science, though the magnitudes were smaller. Multiple alternative specifications support the findings of increased alignment. Implications for research and SBR policy are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An essay is presented on the challenge concerning the educational examinations standard in real teaching practices in the U.S. It explores the important factors to consider in assessing the ability and progress of teachers in teaching their students and the manner and method of teaching. The author is critical of the use of examinations to judge the true teaching ability and efficacy of teachers in nurturing their students' mental growth and development.

An essay is presented on the true measure of educational standards and accountability across schools considering the concerns over standardized school performance evaluation in the U.S. It explores some documents from the archives of the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago, Illinois which discuss topics on student motivation, school discipline, and cooperative student evaluation. It also discusses the aspects of student effort which include cooperation, responsibility, and attitude.

The article presents an essay that explores the history of education in Uganda. It examines how village schools brought education and literacy into communities on a much wider scale than was achieved with later, more refined schools. While schools developed to have higher standards, the number of schools funded by the government declined sharply. The essay explores how this decision was made and discusses the impact it has had on Uganda.

This article examines the influence of globalization on the growth of national educational assessments and international educational testing. It is suggested that because education has been linked to national economic development and political democratization, democratic countries have an interest in encouraging educational reform. The authors note that by the end of 2010, an estimated third of all countries will have implemented standardized testing to assess student achievement in middle schools and high schools, while 65 percent of all countries remain uninvolved in international testing.

As prekindergarten becomes a more common feature in elementary school, little is known about how early childhood stakeholders are incorporating their child-centered practices into the standards-based accountability reforms that define elementary school. This article addresses this issue by presenting a case study that examined the implementation of a prekindergarten assessment tool. The tool was to align the academic achievement expectations of the prekindergarten program with those found in the corresponding elementary schools. The tool initially failed to address district stakeholders’ conceptions of the amount of academic skills and knowledge students were to obtain in prekindergarten. It was edited to correct this problem. Examining this case reveals the complexity that early education stakeholders face in merging their conceptions of practice with elementary school policies that require all children to acquire mandated standards. It also offers the chance to consider the steps both sets of stakeholders might take to support the integration of prekindergarten into elementary school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the federal accountability mandate for the success of the education system implemented at the Mission Hill School (MHS) in Boston, Massachusetts. In relates that the U.S. Department of Education, for it to receive funding under the federal stimulus package, proposed an accountability profile base on the standard set by President Barack Obama. The profile is said to be met by schools to ensure the compliance of educational standards. However, problems have risen when the government failed to realize that the accountability profile did not match with the standards of some innovative schools such as the MHS.

With increased emphasis on state standards and assessments in science, one might question whether there is still a role for national science standards and benchmarks. This article makes a case for the importance of national guidelines and identifies key functions performed by the National Research Council's National Science Education Standards and the American Association for the Advancement of Science's Benchmarks for Science Literacy. We describe how national guidelines provide a vision of what science education could be and its value to all students; consider the implications of aligning curriculum, instruction, and assessment to these guidelines; discuss the quality of current state standards; and consider what the national reform efforts have to offer states and school districts seeking to improve teaching and learning in K-8 science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on private school in Pakistan and the nation's education systems in the 2000s. More than half of the 132 million people in Pakistan are below the age of 17 and less than 60 percent of the youth population is enrolled in school. The article discusses the country's Millennium Development Goals and its educational performance and literacy rates compared to other Asian nations. The article also examines the effect that religion has on radicalization, politics, and students. Information is provided on school fees, educational standards, and teacher effort as well.

The article examines the variation in the effect of social class differences on parent-child communication and explores whether social class differences in the educational effect of parent-child communication are produced by structural features of educational systems, particularly by the level of standardization in a particular country, using data from the Programme for International Student Assessment. It relates how educational standardization affect parental involvement on children's schooling. It outlines the barriers posed by nonstandardized educational systems to parent-child communication among low socieconomic parents.

Most of the articles in this issue assert that the growing public health problems of obesity and sedentary lifestyle will influence the nature of elementary school physical education and its place in the curriculum. There are, however, substantial reasons to exercise caution in speculating about the ultimate effect of such forces. Among the constraints on achieving significant progress are widespread use of underprepared classroom teachers; insufficient class time provided in the school schedule; the social and psychological complexity of health problems involving obesity, nutrition, and physical activity; and the absence of an adequate knowledge base for the design of programs that will influence subsequent lifestyle. The work of professional organizations in developing standards for defining sound programs offers a foundation for future progress. Development of reliable and valid measures for teacher performance and student achievement relative to those standards is under way but presently remains incomplete. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The perspective of this article is that the purpose of the elementary physical education program is the development of a physically active lifestyle. We discuss the relative contribution of the development of motor skills, fitness, content related to encouraging participation, and the affective goals of the program to the development of a physically active lifestyle. Teaching must be effective if children are to acquire the skills to lead a physically active lifestyle. We explore the research base identifying effective teaching in an elementary school physical education setting in terms of academic learning time and management roles and communication and content-development skills of the teacher. Similarities and differences between teaching in a gymnasium and in a classroom are identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the relationship between the one-child policy and school attendance for adolescent children in China. It informs that sibship composition may affect school attendance, since single children consistently has a higher chance of attendance than children with an older brother for those beyond compulsory education. Furthermore, parents of single children could enhance attention and investment to facilitate child intellectual development. The author advised to strengthen the campaign efforts in giving children better education and promote sibling equality in families with two or more children with enforcement of the current compulsory education and expansion of the present education system in the country.

The article discusses the five bibliographic elements which contribute to the development of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES). The said bibliographic elements include the changes of the structure of bibliographies, the devaluation of theoretical/methodological articles, changes in geographical regions, the thematic representation, as well as the unique features of the 2006 bibliography. Moreover, the author analyses the published bibligraphies of the journal 1959, as basis for his comparison of the 2006 bibliography.

Using interviews of students prior to and during their retained year and of their teachers, this study examined 22 students retained under Chicago's Ending Social Promotion policy. It focused on the "intervention" of retention, including how teachers shaped the retained year for students and the nature and quality of instructional strategies utilized. Students were most often exposed to the same material used in the previous year. Although access to remedial supports varied, students reported little guidance from teachers and generally did not change their learning strategies. However, students with high levels of instructional support who altered their learning strategies during the retained year were relatively more academically successful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relations between policy and practice embody a dilemma. Policies aim to solve problems, yet the key problem solvers are those who have the problem. Governments devise instruments to encourage implementation, but they help only if used well by those with the problem, whose capability is often weak. The realization of policy in practice thus depends on the fit between capabilities that support implementation and aims. The more aims outstrip capabilities, the less likely is effective implementation. When Title 1 of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act began, capabilities were modest: the program's instruments were limited, and neither practitioners nor workers in the environment knew much about school improvement. Yet Title 1 became a viable program in the 1970s because its aims were defined in ways that were achievable, given the capability that was possible. Title 1 later was made the chief lever for national standards-based reform policies, but capability was far from what would be required to eliminate the achievement gap, and the revised Title 1 did not contain means to vastly increase capability. Thus an effort to promote ambitious instruction led to reduced standards of success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using multiple analytic methods, we examined the fit between 2 concurrent policy mandates in Florida — the adoption of core reading programs in high-poverty schools, and the retention of third graders who scored at the lowest levels on the state assessment. We first examined 2 contemporary third-grade basal reading programs for the guidance offered teachers who teach a range of learners. We found that 1 program (F) included significantly more preparation for reading and independent practice, and more instruction in vocabulary and fluency; the other program (C) included significantly more comprehension segments, particularly questioning to develop interpretations. In the second phase of the study, we examined the relation between these programs and student achievement. We found an inverse relation between poverty and achievement, regardless of program. Similarly, there were no significant differences between programs for students who achieved at average levels. Nonetheless, significantly more students in program C achieved at the lowest test level, failing third grade, and significantly more students in program F achieved at the highest level. Juxtaposing our analysis of the core programs against the achievement test results, we offer tentative explanations of the differential influence and limitations of both core programs, suggesting that such curriculum standardization may further disadvantage the lowest-achieving readers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we discuss the relationship between place-based education and standards-based reforms. Using an initiative in Vermont to include place-based standards into the state's curricular frameworks, we examine state policy makers' and practitioners' views of state standards and place-based curriculum. Furthermore, we explore the ways in which the practitioners view the impact of both of these curricular efforts on their classroom practices. We challenge the common view of incompatibility between state standards and locally responsive curriculum and offer instead a view of complementarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using standards-based evaluation ratings for nearly 400 teachers, and achievement results for over 7,000 students from grades 4-6, this study investigated the distribution and achievement effects of teacher quality in Washoe County, a mid-sized school district serving Reno and Sparks, Nevada. Classrooms with higher concentrations of minority, poor, and low-achieving students were more likely to be taught by teachers with lower evaluation scores. Two-level multilevel models, nesting students within classrooms, tended to show higher mean achievement in classrooms taught by teachers of higher than lower quality, with differences of approximately one-tenth of 1 standard deviation. Findings relating teacher quality to closing within-classroom achievement gaps, though, were mixed. Implications are discussed related to teacher evaluation, teacher quality, and educational inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is likely that the quality of public schooling in Pakistan is a concern of parents, leading some of them to see private schooling as an alternative. The impact of parental characteristics on enrollment varies significantly by sex: a girl is much less likely to enroll in school if her mother is not schooled or if her father's occupation is agricultural. Some elements of the quality that parents care most are more likely to be present in private than in public schools: better physical facilities and more attentive teachers. The goal of this article is to assess the role of primary school access, type, and quality on parent's decision to enroll their children in primary school in rural Pakistan.

In this article we described how an underperforming school district used research and theory on curriculum, assessment, implementation, and school and classroom organization to develop and implement district standards and improve the achievement of elementary school students. Key reforms included teachers developing essential curriculum standards, standards-based criterion-referenced tests, and standards-based extended learning opportunities. Teachers rated the reform efforts positively and reported a high likelihood of implementation. Using California Department of Education data, we employed Econometric analyses to estimate program effects for the district's elementary school from 1999 to 2002. A difference-of-differences model estimated 10 of 16 positive and significant effects on grades 2 to 5 SAT9 scaled score mathematics achievement, ranging from .2σ to .7σ. The same model applied to reading scores showed 12 of 16 insignificant or negative grade-level effects. As predicted, however, second and third graders in 2002—those students who had 3 and 4 years of exposure to the program exclusively—experienced only positive (4 of 4) and mostly significant (3 of 4) reading and mathematics effects. Results may guide district administrators implementing standards or comprehensive school reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Describes the history of examinations in West Africa used by the West African Examinations Council as a case study. Brief history of education in West Africa; Debates on examination standards; Africanization of the educational system.

Discusses the role of politics and the nature of state-policy relations in shaping the design, implementation and impact of national assessment systems in Latin America. Challenges of measuring student academic achievement; Appropriateness and pertinence of the paradigm; Origin and characteristics of the national assessment systems.

The article discusses the impact of educational objectives on the development of education in the U.S. The manuscript offers a broad-based critique of a set of issues with which the University of Chicago Department of Education had been intimately identified the importance of clarity and specificity of behavioral outcomes in the formulation of educational objectives. Eisner suggests that curriculum construction may be more an art than a science. Moreover, educational objectives need to be clearly specified to provide the goals toward which curriculum is aimed, to facilitate the selection and organization of content and to make it possible to evaluate the outcomes of the curriculum.

The article examines the need to conduct a scientific study and several problems in secondary education in the U.S. This paper found that there is a problem among high school teachers than among teachers in the lower schools. In addition, there is a lack in the accessibility of scientific information or studies that could be a basis for final scientific conclusions. The author asserts that the complexity in the high school environment would require a huge group of researchers to conduct a scientific study of high school matters.

This article explores issues involved in using assessments as a means of defining standards and encouraging efforts to meet them. It compares the European examination system with the present American testing system. It also considers issues that must be faced in defining learning domains in ways that do not encourage narrowly focused training on specific assessment items. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

National standards and assessments have been promoted as a means for upgrading curriculum and student performance in schools. This article argues that they are unlikely to have that effect for several reasons: First, top-down specifications of content linked to tests cannot take into account the many pathways to learning that will be appropriate for different students in schools across the country. Second, school communities must undertake their own hard work on standard setting and consensus development if they are to become committed to and knowledgeable about change. And, finally, large inequalities in opportunities to learn are more responsible for learning gaps than a paucity of tests. Standards and tests have already proved themselves to be an ineffectual means for leveraging resource equalization. Inequalities in learning opportunities must be addressed head-on if they are ever to be successfully removed. The article argues that, instead of starting with content and performance standards, policies should aim to create a system in which improved teacher knowledge and equalized school capacity are the starting points for systemic change. In such a system, teachers and schools will have the knowledge, resources, and organizational supports to create appropriate curriculum and useful assessments for the students they serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Major attention has been given to establishing a national policy on educational standards and assessments. This article presents detail about background events culminating in public decision making by the National Council on Education Standards and Testing. Explanations for their deliberations were based on the ascendance of new approaches to assessment and the emergence of two classes of assessment experts: advocates and researchers. The article illustrates how experts in these roles have differential effect on educational reform. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]