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This paper develops a model of public exchange whereby voters and education policy makers exchange with one another within school districts. Because school district consolidation lowers alternatives to voters-parents, consolidation is hypothesized to raise public education spending because weakened intergovernmental competition allows policy makers to promote their own utility, rather than that of constituents. Models of public education spending and academic performance are estimated over 1988-1990. While evidence indicates little support for the traditional treatment of the Leviathan hypothesis that greater competition lowers public spending, this paper argues that education spending by itself does not fully provide a valid test of the Leviathan hypothesis since spending, by itself, does not necessarily indicate the quality of public education programmes. Empirical evidence indicates that greater numbers of schools and school districts promote higher student achievement as evidenced by higher math and verbal SAT scores, math proficiency of 8th graders, and lower high school drop-out rates. Evidence therefore suggests that, while greater numbers of school districts and schools are, to some degree, associated with higher public education spending, higher student achievement appears to follow as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Context: Since the 1970s, researchers have attempted to link observational measures of instructional process to student achievement (and occasionally to other outcomes of schooling). This paper reviews extensively both historical and contemporary research to identify what is known about effective teaching. Purpose/Objective: Good, after reviewing what is known about effective teaching, attempts to apply this to current descriptions of effective teaching and its application value for practice. Good notes that much of the "new" research on effective teaching has simply replicated what has been known since the 1980s. Although this is not unimportant (since it shows that older findings still pertain to contemporary classrooms), it is unfortunate that research has not moved beyond the relationship between general teacher behavior (those that cut across subject areas) and student achievement (as measured by standardized tests). How this information can be applied and the difficulty in using this information is examined in the paper. Research Design: The paper is a historical analysis and reviews research on teaching from the 1960s to today. Conclusion: This paper has stressed that our data base on effective teaching is limited--still it has some implications for practice. Even though the knowledge base is limited, there is no clear knowledge that teachers-in-training learn and have the opportunity to practice and use. It would seem that teacher education programs would want to assure that their graduates, in addition to possessing appropriate knowledge, would also have clear conceptual understanding and skills related to active teaching, proactive management, communication of appropriate expectations for learning, and the ability to plan and enact instruction that balances procedural and conceptual knowledge. Future research on the use of this knowledge base and its effects in teacher education programs would be informative. If done correctly, research on teaching can improve instruction. However, the research must be applied carefully if it is to have useful effects. And, as noted often in this paper, research must consider outcomes of schooling other than achievement such as creativity, adaptability, and problem finding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In September 1989, the United States' Governors Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia set an ambitious goal by declaring that "By the year 2000, United States students will be first in the world in mathematics and science achievements". However, recent results of the 'Programme for International Student Achievement' and 'Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study' indicate that the United States students' achievements in mathematics are far below world class standards. This paper seeks to discuss issues in an international context related to the goal of creating world-class high quality mathematics education for all K-12 American students. In particular, the author also shares his reflections and depicts lessons from Singapore's success story in mathematics education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a rudimentary model of the public school system as an input-output process. The inputs are students' own abilities and attitudes, parental support, peer support, quality of the school system, community support, and society's posture with respect to education. Outputs are various categories of academic achievement as well as social competence, responsibility, self confidence, creativeness, ethics, and ambition. All these factors must be measured by index numbers or simple indicators. The model is a set of regression equations relating outputs to inputs. Some implementation of the model has been made possible by means of data gathered in the U.S. Office of Education's Equality-of-Educational-Opportunity Survey. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The curriculum, instruction, and services we provide in schools, colleges, and universities matter a lot, but if we continue to ignore our students’ “surrounding culture,” progress toward a more educated nation will continue to be disappointing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale immigration is one of the most important social developments of our time. It is a transformational process affecting families and their children. According to Caps, Fix, Murray, Ost, Passel and Herwantoro (2005), "Between 14 and 16 million immigrants entered the United States during the 1990s, up from 10 million during the 1980s and 7 million during the 1970s. Sustained high levels of immigration have also led to a rapid increase in the number of children who face serious challenges due to limited English proficiency" (p. 25). Sub-Saharan Africa contributes approximately 4 percent of the total immigrant students coming to the United States and encounter, among other barriers and detours, language, social and cultural disconnect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study about the development of staff training in virtual high schools in the U.S. This study profiles three virtual schools at different stages of maturity in order to describe a school focused on delivering quality professional development that has a positive impact on students' achievement. It discusses the barriers encountered and the best practices implemented in these virtual high schools. The impact of these schools on the students, faculty, and staff are also presented.

The article suggests that the United States has to conduct research in order to figure out how to narrow student achievement gaps in the field of science between white students and students of African American, Latino, Native American, and Asian American descent. The article presents summaries of presentations at the "Optimizing Science Achievement for All Students" symposium hosted by the Maryland Institute for Minority Achievement and Urban Education and funded by the National Science Foundation. The article also mentions a proposed research agenda in urban science education that would focus on how socioeconomic factors affect student achievement.

Using data from the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88), path analytic procedures were performed to test an ecological model of the effects of family- and individual-level characteristics on the academic achievement of African American students. The study results show that several of the family influence variables directly or indirectly affected 12th-grade academic achievement. Furthermore, most of the individual influence variables were directly related to 12th-grade achievement. A surprising finding from this study was the nonsignificant effect of family income on 12th-grade achievement. Overall, the findings support the notion that family-and individual-level characteristics are important predictors of academic success among African American students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates the effectiveness of the systematic modeling teaching strategy on integrated science process skills and formal reasoning ability of students in the U.S. The study was conducted to determine if a systematic modeling instructional approach affects the achievement of integrated science process skills and/or formal reasoning ability of middle school science students. The subjects used were 327 sixth- through ninth-grade students in a large urban school system. The results indicate that students receiving modeled instruction demonstrated a significant difference in their achievement of process skills when compared to either of the control groups.