From the Capital to the Classroom: Standards-based Reform in the States

From the Capital to the Classroom: Standards-based Reform in the States PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description


From the Capitol to the Classroom

From the Capitol to the Classroom PDF Author: Susan Fuhrman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 304

Book Description
NSSE's second centennial volume focuses on standards-based reform in the U.S.: its overall theory, means of implementation and assessing impact, the ways in which schools and teachers have responded to policy changes, and the progress and future direction of reforms.

Jsl Vol 13-N2

Jsl Vol 13-N2 PDF Author: JOURNAL OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475811403
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 128

Book Description
The Journal of School Leadership is broadening the conversation about schools and leadership and is currently accepting manuscripts. We welcome manuscripts based on cutting-edge research from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations. The editorial team is particularly interested in working with international authors, authors from traditionally marginalized populations, and in work that is relevant to practitioners around the world. Growing numbers of educators and professors look to the six bimonthly issues to: deal with problems directly related to contemporary school leadership practice teach courses on school leadership and policy use as a quality reference in writing articles about school leadership and improvement.

U.S. Education Reform and National Security

U.S. Education Reform and National Security PDF Author: Joel I. Klein
Publisher: Council on Foreign Relations
ISBN: 087609521X
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 120

Book Description
The United States' failure to educate its students leaves them unprepared to compete and threatens the country's ability to thrive in a global economy and maintain its leadership role. This report notes that while the United States invests more in K-12 public education than many other developed countries, its students are ill prepared to compete with their global peers. According to the results of the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), an international assessment that measures the performance of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics, and science every three years, U.S. students rank fourteenth in reading, twenty-fifth in math, and seventeenth in science compared to students in other industrialized countries. The lack of preparedness poses threats on five national security fronts: economic growth and competitiveness, physical safety, intellectual property, U.S. global awareness, and U.S. unity and cohesion, says the report. Too many young people are not employable in an increasingly high-skilled and global economy, and too many are not qualified to join the military because they are physically unfit, have criminal records, or have an inadequate level of education. The report proposes three overarching policy recommendations: implement educational expectations and assessments in subjects vital to protecting national security; make structural changes to provide students with good choices; and, launch a "national security readiness audit" to hold schools and policymakers accountable for results and to raise public awareness.

The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership

The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership PDF Author: Fenwick W. English
Publisher: SAGE
ISBN: 9780761929796
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 636

Book Description
The SAGE Handbook of Educational Leadership is a landmark work with contributions from 37 internationally renowned scholars covering an extensive range of issues confronting the field of educational leadership and administration. The Handbook reviews how leadership was redefined by management and organizational theory in its quest to become scientific, then looks forward to promising theories, concepts, and practices that show potential for development and application. This Handbook represents the establishment of a new tradition in educational leadership. It thoroughly covers a broad range of issues pertaining to curriculum leadership, supervision, teacher evaluation, budgeting, planning, school design, and issues facing the principalship and the superintendency in the United States.

IJER Vol 14-N2

IJER Vol 14-N2 PDF Author: International Journal of Educational Reform
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1475816413
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 140

Book Description
The mission of the International Journal of Educational Reform (IJER) is to keep readers up-to-date with worldwide developments in education reform by providing scholarly information and practical analysis from recognized international authorities. As the only peer-reviewed scholarly publication that combines authors’ voices without regard for the political affiliations perspectives, or research methodologies, IJER provides readers with a balanced view of all sides of the political and educational mainstream. To this end, IJER includes, but is not limited to, inquiry based and opinion pieces on developments in such areas as policy, administration, curriculum, instruction, law, and research. IJER should thus be of interest to professional educators with decision-making roles and policymakers at all levels turn since it provides a broad-based conversation between and among policymakers, practitioners, and academicians about reform goals, objectives, and methods for success throughout the world. Readers can call on IJER to learn from an international group of reform implementers by discovering what they can do that has actually worked. IJER can also help readers to understand the pitfalls of current reforms in order to avoid making similar mistakes. Finally, it is the mission of IJER to help readers to learn about key issues in school reform from movers and shakers who help to study and shape the power base directing educational reform in the U.S. and the world.

The Courts and Standards Based Reform

The Courts and Standards Based Reform PDF Author: Benjamin Michael Superfine
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190450738
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
Since the desegregation of public schools in the 1950s, the concept of standards-based reform has become a central topic within educational policy. Every American state is now required to enact standards-based reform policies while shifting responsibility away from the government and holding schools more accountable for their students performance. The Courts and Standards-Based Education Reform positions itself at the center of the long standing dispute between law, education, and public policy and analyzes the court's growing role in educational policy. Benjamin Superfine contends that the courts are a strong force in determining education policy, and have been placed in the position to decide some of the most contentious and important issues facing education law as the standards-based reform movement has grown. Such major cases addressed by the courts, in light of standards-based reforms, include the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, and school finance reform litigation. As the courts continue to rule in cases that challenge fundamental aspects of U.S. educational policy, Superfine provides a new approach that can be used in the application and rulings of standards-based reforms.

Standards-based School Mathematics Curricula

Standards-based School Mathematics Curricula PDF Author: Sharon L. Senk
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000149366
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 512

Book Description
The Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics in 1989 set forth a broad vision of mathematical content and pedagogy for grades K-12 in the United States. These Standards prompted the development of Standards-based mathematics curricula. What features characterize Standards-based curricula? How well do such curricula work? To answer these questions, the editors invited researchers who had investigated the implementation of 12 different Standards-based mathematics curricula to describe the effects of these curricula on students' learning and achievement, and to provide evidence for any claims they made. In particular, authors were asked to identify content on which performance of students using Standards-based materials differed from that of students using more traditional materials, and content on which performance of these two groups of students was virtually identical. Additionally, four scholars not involved with the development of any of the materials were invited to write critical commentaries on the work reported in the other chapters. Section I of Standards-Based School Mathematics Curricula provides a historical background to place the current curriculum reform efforts in perspective, a summary of recent recommendations to reform school mathematics, and a discussion of issues that arise when conducting research on student outcomes. Sections II, III, and IV are devoted to research on mathematics curriculum projects for elementary, middle, and high schools, respectively. The final section is a commentary by Jeremy Kilpatrick, Regents Professor of Mathematics Education at the University of Georgia, on the research reported in this book. It provides a historical perspective on the use of research to guide mathematics curriculum reform in schools, and makes additional recommendations for further research. In addition to the references provided at the end of each chapter, other references about the Standards-based curriculum projects are provided at the end of the book. This volume is a valuable resource for all participants in discussions about school mathematics curricula--including professors and graduate students interested in mathematics education, curriculum development, program evaluation, or the history of education; educational policy makers; teachers; parents; principals and other school administrators. The editors hope that the large body of empirical evidence and the thoughtful discussion of educational values found in this book will enable readers to engage in informed civil discourse about the goals and methods of school mathematics curricula and related research.

Learning from the Federal Market?Based Reforms

Learning from the Federal Market?Based Reforms PDF Author: William J. Mathis
Publisher: IAP
ISBN: 1681235056
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 720

Book Description
Over the past twenty years, educational policy has been characterized by top?down, market?focused policies combined with a push toward privatization and school choice. The new Every Student Succeeds Act continues along this path, though with decision?making authority now shifted toward the states. These market?based reforms have often been touted as the most promising response to the challenges of poverty and educational disenfranchisement. But has this approach been successful? Has learning improved? Have historically low?scoring schools “turned around” or have the reforms had little effect? Have these narrow conceptions of schooling harmed the civic and social purposes of education in a democracy? This book presents the evidence. Drawing on the work of the nation’s most prominent researchers, the book explores the major elements of these reforms, as well as the social, political, and educational contexts in which they take place. It examines the evidence supporting the most common school improvement strategies: school choice; reconstitutions, or massive personnel changes; and school closures. From there, it presents the research findings cutting across these strategies by addressing the evidence on test score trends, teacher evaluation, “miracle” schools, the Common Core State Standards, school choice, the newly emerging school improvement industry, and re?segregation, among others. The weight of the evidence indisputably shows little success and no promise for these reforms. Thus, the authors counsel strongly against continuing these failed policies. The book concludes with a review of more promising avenues for educational reform, including the necessity of broader societal investments for combatting poverty and adverse social conditions. While schools cannot single?handedly overcome societal inequalities, important work can take place within the public school system, with evidence?based interventions such as early childhood education, detracking, adequate funding and full?service community schools—all intended to renew our nation’s commitment to democracy and equal educational opportunity.

The Ambiguity of Teaching to the Test

The Ambiguity of Teaching to the Test PDF Author: William A. Firestone
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1135624208
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 311

Book Description
Testing is one of the most controversial of all state and federal educational policies. The effects of testing are quite ambiguous. The same test may lead to different consequences in different circumstances, and teachers may use very different strategies to prepare students for tests. Although most experts agree that mandatory testing leads to teaching to the test, they disagree about whether it leads to meaningless drill, wasted time, de-professionalizing teachers, and demotivating students, or to more challenging and thoughtful curricula, more engaging teaching, increased student motivation, and increased accountability. To help sort through this ambiguity and provide a firmer basis for decisions, The Ambiguity of Teaching to the Test: Standards, Assessment, and Educational Reform offers a hard look at the effects of state testing, and thoroughly examines the ambiguity of test preparation and how test preparation practices are influenced by what teachers know and the leadership coming from the school and district. Drawing on data from a three-year study of New Jersey's testing policy in elementary mathematics and science, it helps to explain the variety of ways that teachers modify their teaching in response to state tests, raises important questions, and offers useful guidance on how state policymakers and local and district school administrators can implement policies that will improve educational equity and performance for all students. It also offers an in-depth analysis of classroom practices that should inform teachers and teacher educators whose goal is to meaningfully implement conceptually based teaching practices. This comprehensive look at the statewide variation in testing practice features: *a data-based, non-ideological treatment of how testing affects teachers, in a field characterized by ideologically driven beliefs and by anecdotes; *an extensive and well-integrated combination of qualitative and quantitative data sources that provide a statewide overview, as well as an in-depth analysis of teachers and classrooms; *a careful analysis of the variety of forms of teaching to the test; and *a multilevel exploration of how a variety of personal and leadership factors can influence teaching to the test. This is an important book for researchers, professionals, and students in educational testing, educational policy, educational administration, mathematics and science education, educational reform, and the politics and sociology of education. It will also prove useful for state policymakers, school and district leaders, and teacher educators and curriculum specialists who are making decisions about how to design and respond to new testing systems.