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It is now clear that the original promise to anchor K-12 education to higher education and backmap the Common Core Mathematics Standards (CCMS) from the upper grades down to the primary grades was empty rhetoric. Higher education has scarcely been involved at all, with the exception of the institutions that agreed to place high school students who pass a Common Core-based high school examination directly into credit-bearing freshman coursework (without remediation) in return for their states receiving "Race to the Top" grant funds. Because the CCMS are standards for all public school students in this country, regardless of achievement level, they are low standards, topping out at about the level of a weak Algebra II course. And because this level is to determine "college readiness" as they define it (which is not remotely what our public four year college and universities currently assume it to be), it is apt to mean fewer high school students taking advanced mathematics and science coursework before they go to college, more college freshmen with even less knowledge of mathematics than currently, and more college credit-bearing courses set at an international level of seventh or eighth grade. However, the greatest harm to higher education may accrue from the alignment of the SAT to Common Core's high school standards, converting the SAT from an adaptable test predictive of college work to an inflexible retrospective test aligned to and locking in a low level of mathematics. This means that future SAT scores will be less informative to college admission counselors than they now are, and that the SAT will lose its role in locating students with high STEM potential in high schools with weak mathematics and science instruction. An appendix includes: "Chinese Mathematics Standards for Lower High School."

The value of research and the career of a university lecturer depend heavily on the success in publishing scientific papers. This article reviews the guidelines for writing and submitting research papers. The three most important success criteria in publishing are as follows: the paper describes a good research, it is written according to the traditions of scientific writing and submitted to the right journal. The "right" journal publishes papers similar to yours. It is effectual to follow the usual structure of scientific papers: introduction, methods, results, discussion, and conclusion. Introduction gives the review of the literature studying your problem and leads to the aim and the hypothesis of your research. The methods part contains the description of the research in detail, which enables the reader to do the research over again. Results are usually given in tables and graphs. Discussion includes the analyses of the data received to find support or reject the hypothesis raised in introduction. The inferences are compared with the findings of other researchers and short comings and/or tasks for further research are pointed out. It is important to avoid plagiarism in the manuscript and to consider the copyright law. The manuscript is sent to the editor of the selected journal together with a letter explaining why the journal was chosen and who is the contributing author. In about three months, the editor sends the reviews of the manuscript to the contributing author. The reviews are free support and advice in doing research and writing papers. If not rejected, the manuscript will be revised by the authors and published. Even the published papers contain shortcomings, which do not harm their contribution to science. (Contains 1 table.)

Monitoring the Future is an ongoing program of research intended to assess the changing lifestyles, values, and preferences of American youth. This publication, from the occasional paper series, describes a study that monitors drug use and potential explanatory factors among American secondary school students, college students, and young adults. The study aims to monitor drug use and related factors in order to provide social indicators of historical change, to distinguish the three types of change (age, period, cohort), and to analyze results at both individual and aggregate levels. Eleven specific objectives of the study are described and each is explained, including its logic and rationale, relevant theory, literature cited, and progress. Objectives 1 through 3 concern drug use and potential explanatory factors; Objective 4 distinguishes which kinds of change are occurring for various types of drug use; Objectives 5 through 9 study the causes, consequences, and developmental patterns associated with types of change in drug use; and Objectives 10 and 11 list additional methodological, policy, data-sharing, and other objectives. (Contains 11 footnotes, 3 figures, and 1 table.) [For "Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper 64," see ED494064.]

Set against the backdrop of increasing economic interdependence in East Asia, the idea of regional integration is now being discussed as a long-term political process in the region. As in the field of the international economy, de facto integration and interdependence exist with respect to the internationalization of the higher education system in East Asia. Based on the results of a comprehensive Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI) survey of 300 leading higher education institutions active in cross-border higher education, located in ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member Southeast Asian countries and three Northeast Asian countries (China, Japan, and Korea), this paper examines universities perceptions of the degree of cross-border activities, the significance of their expected outcomes, and their regional preferences for partners. The objective is to envision a direction for a future regional higher education framework in East Asia and to consider the policy implications of the internationalization of higher education in East Asia in the context of regionalization. The findings related to the degree of cross-border activities suggest a current perception that there is more prominent in conventional than in innovative activities, but that innovation will rise considerably in the future. With respect to the significance of expected outcomes,academic and political expected outcome are perceived to be more significant than economic expected outcome, which are nevertheless expected to be more significant in the future. Finally, in terms of their preferred regions of partners, universities in East Asia overall place a high priority on building partnerships within their own region. Yet, among Northeast Asian universities, North America is perceived as the most active partner. (Contains 3 figures, 21 tables, and 13 footnotes.) [This paper was prepared as part of a Japan International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI) research project titled, "Cross-border Higher Education for Regional Integration and the Labor Market in East Asia."]

The purpose here is to translate the Fifth Force Psychologies movement through an integral (Wilberian) lens. One of the most significant impacts of doing this comes from the integral initiative, which has led to Ken Wilber arguing "Psychology is dead." Concomitantly, his view is that the "integral approach" is its replacement. This move characterizes Wilber's unique integral philosophy in a deconstructionist postmodern style of Nietzsche's "God is dead." Yet, Wilber, unlike Nietzsche, and more like Rank, reconstructs a post-postmodern vision of a new critical analysis and critical theory. In the author's view, the best of Wilberian thought and critique is his social politics of knowledge (re: his dealing with the Four Forces). It is what makes a foundational postmodern critical (conflict) theory of Integral (at least, in the Wilberian view, of which the author finds most compelling and useful to the problems of the 21st century overall--that is, ideological conflict, violence, fear, terror, wars, etc.). The very understanding of "psychology" and the field of Psychology is put into question by Wilber's challenge, just as God was more fully put into question by more and more people after Nietzsche. This technical paper puts Psychology into question, not for the first time, but in a way the author thinks is truly a first 21st century vision and profound in its potential as critique. The author offers nine reasons for naming and reclaiming "Integral-Transpersonal" as the Fourth Force of Psychology. (Contains 44 footnotes.) [This paper was published by the In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute.]

AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) is collaborating with BSCS (Biological Sciences Curriculum Study) in the development of a curriculum unit for eighth grade students that connects fundamental chemistry and biology concepts to better prepare them for high school biology. Recognizing that teachers play an influential role in delivering the curriculum to students, we developed teacher support materials and professional development designed to help teachers use the unit effectively. In order to learn about the promise of the teacher support materials, we developed an assessment targeting aspects of participating teachers' (n = 8) science content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for the specific learning goals of the unit. Specifically, the assessment targeted three areas of teachers' knowledge: 1) content knowledge 2) knowledge of student thinking, and 3) knowledge of strategies to move student thinking forward, across four item contexts: 1) chemical reactions, 2) conservation of mass, 3) flow of matter in living systems, and 4) plant growth. Teachers took the assessment three times: before PD, after PD, and after teaching the unit. The assessment items were mainly constructed response and were scored using indicators of success and difficulty. Teachers made gains over time in most of the knowledge areas and across most of the contexts. Areas where they did not make clear progress, or where their knowledge was particularly low, indicated that either the assessment instrument or the teacher support materials could be improved. Revisions based on these findings are reported. (Contains 4 tables and 1 figure.)

What happens in a final project that fosters teaching for understanding? That inquiry calls to mind the Taoist belief that emptiness makes a cup useful. In the context of this paper, the inquiry organizes a narrative about how teaching for understanding surfaced in a "Theories of Learning" course at Edward Waters College. At a deeper level, the story shows how the power teaching prototype could be applied to enhance the academic experience of primarily African American students. Teaching for understanding was the first factor in the power teaching prototype for 21st Century education. So Harvard University Project Zero Research Center's teaching for understanding framework and Howard Gardner's MI approach became the two instructional design theories for designing and delivering the final project described in an ethnographic-like story. Secondly, information literacy was another factor in power teaching. The practice of locating, evaluating, and creating information was missing in the curriculum for theories of learning. Missing also was Gardner's five minds of the future framework. Other factors of power teaching, information literacy and Gardner's quintet of minds, would become more explicit in a course makeover--a revised 21st Century theories of learning seminar. However, by the end of this paper, readers know what happens in the final project of a college psychology course. They have a full cup--a sense of teaching for understanding--and an empty cup for new inquiry. (A list of 19 annotated references is included.)

This paper discusses research and thinking on the importance of interpersonal and intrapersonal effectiveness for teachers, school leaders and school improvement, and explores implications of the use of NLP in relation to personalisation and the children's agenda. It outlines initial research carried out as part of the Fast Track Teaching programme (the UK government accelerated leadership development programme) and on the London Leadership Strategy and makes suggestions for further research. Two appendices are included: (1) Content analysis of suggestions for use of NLP in teaching and school leadership (n. 380 teachers); and (2) Core content knowledge covered in the INLPTA Diploma Level training.

In 12 audio taped sessions, three kindergarten children engaged algebra in a teaching for understanding, thematic project. Toni, Asa, and Cornel had one-on-one lessons dealing with simple natural numbers, patterns, and relationships. Along the way, each child studied one of Toni Morrison's Who's got game books to explore repetition patterns in well written literature. Then, each child "algebrafied" a Liberian folktalk and a Chinese folktale to explore number, pattern, and relationship in simple arrays. Finally, they engaged square natural numbers one to four. On the practitioner research side of the project, the inquiry was this: What happens when kids explore natural numbers in simple arrays? This descriptive inquiry used an ethnographic-like, participant observer model to collect data systematically (3 lessons per session times 12 sessions or 36 lessons in all). In brief, the study found that three kindergarten children made generalizations, added to a web of knowledge, used mathematical memory, and displayed flawed reasoning as a springboard for new mathematical knowledge--what Susan Jo Russell called "mathematical reasoning." The paper captured what counted for learning and what counted for research. These were two themes of the 29th Ethnography and Education Research Forum at the University of Pennsylvania, 1 March 2008. (Contains an annotated bibliography.)

A decade ago we published a book reporting an extensive analysis of nationwide panel data from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) project showing impacts of post-high school experiences on substance use (Bachman, Wadsworth, O'Malley, Johnston, & Schulenberg, 1997). One of the most important findings was that various categories of marital status, including engagement and divorce/separation, showed substantial impacts on young adults' use of cigarettes, alcohol, and illicit drugs. MTF now has data extending to modal age 45. Using these new data, we revisit the effects of marriage on substance use, which we have termed "marriage effects," and consider two questions: (1) Have marriage effects changed in recent years? and (2) Are substance use effects of marital status transitions different when those transitions occur during ages 30-45, versus ages 19-30? (Contains 2 footnotes, 9 figures, and 3 tables.) [For "Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper Paper 67," see ED508290.]

The purpose of this briefing paper is to conceptualize a social responsibility and public policy agenda for Montgomery College. The briefing paper provides (a) a well researched perspective to embed a College culture to actualize social responsibility and public policy as institutional practices; (b) examines some of the opportunities and challenges of such an agenda based on a past College initiative; (c) discusses the epistemology and pedagogy of outreach, social responsibility, and public policy; and (d) proposes an organizational structure for establishing an Institute or Center at the College to shepherd a social responsibility and public policy agenda. (Contains 2 figures.)

This research sought to determine which factors relate to higher and lower production of papers, citations and impacts (citations divided by papers), because this is one of the AAU Phase I Indicators and to serve as guiding principles as The University of South Florida (USF) works toward becoming an AAU institution. The time period under consideration regarding citations was from 1981 through 2005. In order to assess the relationship between various possible causal factors and citation productivity, comparisons among AAU and non-AAU institutions were conducted. All institutions investigated were classified as Research Extensive under the 2000 Carnegie system, which produced a sample of 150 schools. The following points emerge from these analyses: (1) It appears to require between 11 and 16 years for the average article to mature regarding citations impact. (2) The best simple predictors of citation productivity are post doctorates, federal research expenditures, national academy members, total research expenditures and core revenues. (3) The strongest influence on citations is the percent of research conducted in biological and health sciences disciplines. The broad discipline areas of biological and health sciences, and other physical sciences and mathematics generate 80.5% of all U.S. papers, and 89.7% of all U.S. citations. (4) Over time, USF exhibits generally upward trends relative to all other institutions on citation productivity, however, the gap between USF and AAU institutions has not lessened during the time under consideration, except with regards to paper impact, where USF reached AAU levels by 1993. However, USF produces far fewer papers than the average AAU institution. (5) Carnegie rankings exhibit a one-to-one relationship with funding, which associates with larger faculty numbers and greater research productivity in the form of published papers and citations. (6) AAU institutions average between two times and five times as many National Academy Members and Faculty Award winners as non-AAU Very High research institutions. (7) AAU institutions exhibit a 54% advantage over non-AAU Very High public research institutions for research expenditures per faculty member. (8) Both AAU and non-AAU Very High research institutions have about 30% of their expenditures coming from undependable grant-based funding. However, for USF this percentage was 42%. (9) Compared to Big East, SUS and Strategic Plan Peers, USF and other SUS institutions have lower tuition than other peer groups. To summarize, during the past 25 years, USF has generally been moving in the direction of AAU institutions, however, as Birnbaum (2007) notes: "...'world-class' has increasingly come to be synonymous with 'Western.' That means science, research, and lots of money..." The basic factor influencing citation productivity appears to be funding, with AAU institutions having a substantial advantage over non-AAU Very High and High Research institutions. The following are appended: (1) AAU Membership Indicators and Definitions; and (2) Tables 5 and 6. (Contains 9 figures, 6 tables, and 6 footnotes.) [This report represents an Internal Technical Report, Office of Planning and Analysis, University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida]

The Education-Drug Use Connection focused primarily on a nationwide sample of adolescents, first surveyed when they were nearing the end of 8th grade in the years 1991, 1992, and 1993, and followed biennially for eight years thereafter. (Full details on samples and methods are provided in Bachman et al., 2008, and are not repeated here.) The analyses in that book were based on the total samples of males and females, analyzed separately because of important gender differences in educational experiences, delinquency, and substance use. Most of the analyses included a race/ethnicity dimension (distinguishing between Whites, African Americans, Hispanics, and a remaining category that combined all others); it was a background dimension and statistically controlled any additive effects of race/ethnicity on the relationships between educational factors and various dimensions of substance use. Important subgroup differences were evident in the analyses, and were often noted--albeit briefly. Statistically controlling additive effects does not, however, fully guard against spuriously attributing racial/ethnic differences to other effects. As a further check against that risk, we repeated key analyses with only the White respondents included, and satisfied ourselves that racial/ethnic differences did not produce erroneous results in our findings for the total samples of males and females. We did not, however, attempt to explore interactions involving race/ethnicity. That remaining task, examining whether the same patterns of relationships found for the total samples are evident in each of the subgroups, is the main focus of the present paper. (Contains 1 footnote, 8 figures, and 12 tables.) [For "Monitoring the Future Occasional Paper Paper 65," see ED508288.]

The author outlines a unique integral transdisciplinary theory (model, map) for studying four meta-motivations universal to all living systems. Within this theory are four primary principles to make the whole integral basis for understanding motivation and all that it determines in perception, thinking, feelings, actions. The four meta-motivations are Fear, Love, Freedom and Fearlessness. This work continues the author's 25 year study of recalibrating W. societies' views and approaches to curriculum design which are truly emancipatory, rather than continuing a legacy of fear-based curriculum design and pedagogy that is wiping out the best qualities of the Natural, Cultural and Spiritual worlds. The author argues that the foundational meta-motivation (principle) of Fear is an "ecology of fear" essential to the understanding of the Natural world and thus, also, the world of human beings. Any notion of "living in harmony" with the natural world ("a la" Gregory Bateson and many holistic and indigenous educators) ought to engage the role of an ecology of fear. A list of related resources is provided in an appendix. [This paper was published by the In Search of Fearlessness Research Institute.] (Contains 4 figures and 8 footnotes.)

The World Wide Web influences education and our lives in many ways. Nowadays, Web-based homework has been becoming widespread practice in physics courses and some other courses as well. Although are some disputes whether this is an encouraging or risky development for student learning, there is limited research assessing the pedagogical effect of changing the medium from written, hand-graded homework to online oriented, computer-graded homework. In this study, web-oriented homework system is developed to assess students' introductory physics course performance. Later on, these results are compared with paper-based (peer) homework performance for mid enrollment physics courses. One of two identical sections of introductory physics course students received paper-based, hand graded group homework while the other received the individual web-based homework. Then two groups' on conceptual and problem-solving performance measures are compared. No significant differences were found in students' Force Concept Inventory (FCI) test scores; however, average homework performance scores were significant that could be attributed to the homework method used in favor of paper-based peer homework group. (Contains 2 tables and 10 figures.)

This paper draws on current research and analyzes participant interactions in a 12-week leadership online training course with students from 14 Latin American countries. The paper systematizes the experience of the Inter-American Institute for Social Development (INDES) and constitutes a case study of an experience in a regional, non-academic online training course. The research concentrates specifically on the effects of and influences on different types of interaction, particularly taking into consideration the intricacies and interrelations of participation, critical thinking, achievement and their relationship to gender. The paper quantifies student-to-student postings in the different online discussion conferences, relates the postings to activity types as well as learning outcomes, and gauges the levels of critical thinking in the postings. The analysis is carried out by gender in order to highlight similarities and differences between male and female participants. Finally, other forms of interaction (student-to-content, interface and, instructor) are briefly analyzed using student reports and surveys. Our results suggest positive influences of interaction for an online course, illustrated by positive correlations between grades for written course work and number of postings in the activity conferences as well as total number of postings in all conferences. Additionally, results also point to certain gender preferences for particular discussion forums, but due to the small sample size, no definitive conclusions could be made. Appended are: (1) Learning activity examples; and (2) Evaluation survey results. (Contains 5 footnotes, 9 tables, and 3 figures.) [This paper was produced by the Integration and Regional Programs Department, Inter-American Institute for Social Development (INDES).]

This occasional paper updates and extends earlier papers in the Monitoring the Future project. It provides a detailed description of the project's design, including sampling design, data collection procedures, measurement content, and questionnaire format. It attempts to include sufficient information for others who wish to evaluate the results, to replicate aspects of the study, or to analyze data that is archived. Although there have been additions to the study design and procedures, the basic study design described in a 1978 paper has remained constant in its fundamental characteristics, which is considered the key condition for its ability to successfully measure change. Following an introduction and overview, this paper presents the scope, purposes, and rationale for the nationwide sampling of 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-grade students. In the measures section, an overview is presented of the conceptual framework of the study, the outline of questionnaire content, the questionnaire organization, and the consent and format of the 8th- and 10th-grade questionnaires. Sampling and data collection procedures are included in the next section, which is followed by the representativeness and validity. (Contains 2 tables, 3 figures, and 16 appendixes.)

As globalization and the knowledge economy spreads, the demand for highly skilled workers has increased and developing countries are engaged in cross-border higher education to develop high level human resources for their nations. Using data on a cross-border higher education program between Malaysia and Japan, namely the Higher Education Loan Project (HELP1 and HELP2), this paper explores whether publicly funded cross-border higher education programs have yielded their expected outcomes (i.e., employment immediately after graduation) over the last ten years in the context of the rapidly changing Malaysian economic and higher education landscape. Our findings indicate that the program has met its intended outcomes, that is, the graduates have been absorbed in the industries they intended to work in or have continued with further studies, which are both conducive to Malaysian national development. However, our findings on the rates of graduates staying after completing their degrees imply that factors such as the host country's immigration policies may influence the decision by graduates on where to work. (Contains 10 tables, 7 figures, 10 annexes, and 23 footnotes.) [This report was produced by the JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) Research Institute. It has been prepared as a part of a research project of the Japanese International Cooperation Agency Research Institute (JICA-RI) entitled "Cross-Border Higher Education for Regional Integration and Labor Markets," co-led by Kazuo Kuroda and Takako Yuki.]

This White Paper examines the components that determine effective instruction and tutoring in English spelling, based on current scientific research and experience gained in field testing while developing an innovative educational technology. Basis for the findings were repeated field studies conducted in small groups with students grade 3 and higher (up to college level). The goal was to isolate the components that were a) effective and b) kept learning interesting and challenging. Students and teachers were completing evaluation forms that contained both the opportunity to rate certain program aspects on a scale from 1-5, and included a feedback box for ideas "outside of the box." The evaluation was concluded by interviewing parents and teachers on their experience with the traditional learning approach (spelling word lists and spelling computer games). Their feedback was found to be coherent with accepted brain and pedagogic research, and is summarized in easily accessible format as seven aspects of successful spelling tutoring. The document reflects further on the current bias in society regarding spelling that originates from our pedagogic past and from teaching spelling in rote, authoritarian ways. It further lists evidence that an overall decline in spelling ability and word knowledge is affecting the literacy levels in the nation, alarming policy makers and employers. The paper introduces the Internet as a new way to provide targeted tutoring by replacing the common study-test approach with a much more individualized and effective test-study-test approach, where students are able to focus all of their attention on knowledge they do not yet have. Learning with such a tutoring concept is up to six times more efficient that traditional methods. The report contains a table comparing the new development with traditional methods of teaching, and an extensive bibliography on the research.

Teacher training or teacher recruitment alone cannot ensure the availability of a teacher at school. The teacher deployment is a larger issue in most of the developing countries and Malawi is having acute problem of teacher shortage in certain areas and in certain schools. This discussion papers addresses the teacher deployment issues. (Contains 1 figure.)

Scholarly communication is a multi-relationship topic that is interconnected to various fields and disciplines. Efforts of faculty members, librarians, publishers, information specialists, information technologists and archivists have to be combined together in order to establish and create scholarly communication in any society. In addition of being a multi-relation topic, scholarly communication can be considered an important criterion in assessing and evaluating higher education systems in different countries. Excellent higher education systems have excellent scholarly communications systems, and fair or moderate higher education systems have moderate or fair scholarly communication systems and so on. Therefore, one can assume that there is a positive and a strong relationship between the level of scholarly communication in a certain country and the type of that country, where advanced countries have advanced scholarly communication systems, and poor or developing countries have poor or weak scholarly communication systems. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast higher education systems in technology-based societies and paper-based societies. (Contains 2 footnotes.)

Digital textbooks will soon be part of every classroom in the United States. This trend accompanies an imperative for schools to facilitate 21st century learning in which educators prepare students to learn and live productively in a global society where accurate and current information is a meaningful part of everyday learning. As technology and the Internet have gained presence in classrooms, instructional materials and activities have become digitally rich. The use of digital textbooks is rapidly gaining ground in education. While colleges and universities have moved headlong into digital textbooks as a means to reduce costs for students, K-12 education is venturing cautiously, but steadily, into using digital textbooks. State laws, many of which have been rewritten to include digital content as an acceptable use of state textbook funding, will serve as catalysts that spur the transition to digital textbooks School librarians can provide school-wide leadership to assist students, teachers, and parent concerns when transitioning to digital textbooks. Working in collaboration with teachers, school librarians promote comprehension through questioning, clarifying, seeking meaning, and discussion. Digital textbooks may represent a way to continue advocacy for the importance of reading as well as for the school librarian's leadership role in technology integration. (Contains 2 tables.) [This report was produced by the Florida State University PALM (Partnerships Advancing Library Media) Center.]

The purpose of this study is to explore aspects and indicators most commonly used to assess the quality of education systems in different countries through the comparison of 12 national publications describing the state of the educational system. To compare indicators the CIPP model was chosen. This model is organized in four main parts: Context, Input, Process and Product. Each main part was then divided into categories based on the research literature (e.g., Input is divided into human, financial and material resources). Based on the CIPP model an electronic database for quality indicators comparison has been designed and implemented. This system is dynamic and easy to update. Using the database it is possible to compare countries according to several criteria (e.g., main parts and categories of the CIPP model, ISCED [International Standard Classification of Education] level, level of data collection). The database is available to the public and is designed for researchers and scholastic decision makers. A first comparison shows that processes at the classroom level are rarely considered, whereas public financial resources as well as achievement results are always included. The study concludes with a discussion of the findings of the comparison, as well as suggestions for future research aimed at further defining relevant indicators for the assessment of education quality." An appendix presents: "The on-line database: structure and functions. (Contains 5 figures and 7 footnotes.) [This paper was produced by INVALSI - National Institute for the Educational Evaluation of Instruction and Training.]

Providing remedial (also known as developmental) education is the primary way colleges cope with students who do not have the academic preparation needed to succeed in college-level courses. Remediation is widespread, with nearly one-third of entering freshman taking remedial courses at a cost of at least $1 billion per year. Despite its prevalence, there is uncertainty surrounding its short- and longer-run effects. This paper presents new evidence on this question using longitudinal administrative data from Texas and a regression discontinuity research design. We find little indication that remediation improves academic or labor market outcomes. Additional data are appended. (Contains 32 footnotes, 11 tables, and 5 figures.) [This article has been published as: Martorell, Paco and Isaac McFarlin Jr. 2011. "Help or Hindrance? The Effects of College Remediation on Academic and Labor Market Outcomes," The Review of Economics & Statistics, 93(2): 436-454.]

One of the challenges that we currently face in achieving universal education is how do we ensure that girls, who have missed the school bus or simply got off the bus too early, can still realise their right to quality basic education? This paper reviews several key education initiatives implemented in the last decade to reach out to the out-of-school children and young women in particularly difficult circumstances through condensed or short-term residential education programmes--also known as "accelerated learning" (AL) programmes. The review indicates that evidence on the ground regarding the impact of the interventions is rather mixed and fragmented. AL programs have provided a much-needed opportunity to learn in a congenial environment characterised by child-centred learning and a multi-dimensional teacher-pupil relationship. Discussions with young women and girls who participated in condensed programmes across the country are revealing--in one voice they all said the experience was valuable and it was their only window into the world of education. However, at the same time programmes are often unable to sustain their achievements through forging of effective multiple linkages with the formal education system to ensure continuous learning. The paper asserts that since the demand for such interventions is increasing, the limitations as well as the potential of AL as a strategy needs to be critically engaged within our quest for achieving universal elementary education. (Contains 8 boxes, 5 tables, and 3 footnotes.)

For Americans to engage in a global information society, it is critical that they have access to high-speed, high-bandwidth Internet, meaning broadband. Network connectivity opens up a wealth of possibilities to K-12 educators. While it has the potential to result in fundamental changes in teaching methods, it can definitely be used to enhance already effective teaching methods. However, schools must have confidence in their network infrastructure before network connectivity will be integrated into the classroom. Networks must be reliable and quick; and, if they do not function, as expected and technical support is not readily available, then educators will not use them. Schools face challenges to the integration of broadband in teaching and learning in the areas of access, skills, policy, and motivation. Last mile support is essential and all stakeholders must work together to address the main issues facing the improvement of broadband in schools. A solution to these situations is on-site support to streamline and enable effective use of broadband-enabled technology. For most schools, the school librarian, in their roles as school leaders, can expertly direct this "last mile" implementation by providing the technology coordination, support, and leadership necessary to address access issues from desktop to district. (Contains 2 tables and 4 figures.) [This report was produced by the Florida State University PALM (Partnerships Advancing Library Media) Center. Support for this paper was provided by Gale Cengage Learning.]

To reflect on the mathematics achievement of children engaging "Algebra and Analogies for Kids," the teacher researcher will explore the following inquiry: What happens when kids display analogical thinking in an algebra project? Specifically, the proposed study will examine the reasoning of five children in portfolios of best works and selected performance assessments. Their intellectual products will engage replicated Piagetian tasks for analogical reasoning in mathematics vis a vis his reflecting abstraction model. Fourth in a series of occasional papers that explore thinking and learning, this document includes a 28 item annotated bibliography.

The focus of this research paper is on the role of teachers and the teaching strategies used in classrooms. The premise is that teachers are now realizing that they need to reach beyond traditional ways of teaching in order to assist their students in acquiring a deeper understanding of the topics being studied while developing critical thinking abilities. Strategies examined in the article are Social Interaction, Problem Based Learning, Inductive and Deductive (Eggen, 2001). By familiarizing themselves with the aforementioned strategies, teachers will be able to clearly define learning objectives and appreciate the value of these strategies in enhancing students learning. Included in the strategies are examples that teachers can implement into their instructional modes to ensure differentiated instructional and an equal learning opportunity for all students.

The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast two types of scholarly article designs, quantitative and qualitative, as to how two research designs can be similar and different, and how the authors conduct their research and present their results. When researching and analyzing two scholarly articles of different design types, it is imperative to understand how vocabulary describes research, how research can produce varying data, how their results can be analyzed differently. References included two scholarly articles, one qualitative and one quantitative, and six secondary sources. A review of the two articles using research appropriate vocabulary would provide a more in-depth explanation of the research designs. Analysis revealed that even though both articles shared the same research design, various analytical techniques can produce different perspectives of the results.

How might students engage mindful learning? How might the professor engage mindful teaching? Both questions derived from fieldnotes a participant observer had created for the Future of Learning 2010 Summer Institute (Harvard Graduate School of Education) and the Tests and Measurements course, fall 2010 at Edward Waters College (EWC). Additionally, with an eye on the inquiry set, a participant observer designed a new Theories of Learning course--one that embodied research based practice. The new EWC course used Jerry Fluellen's power teaching prototype for the design, delivery and assessment of instruction. Students encountered daily writing to learn activities and thinking routines. They examined disciplinary ideas including Ellen Langer's landmark mindfulness theory applied to learning and mind brain education as a new direction in theories of learning. In the final project, they became young scholars presenting power point slide shows about the Barack and Michelle Obama Charter School of Tomorrow. They completed a GRE-like final examination of writing and thinking. Evidence of mindful learning and teaching emerged. (Includes a bibliography.)

The purpose of this study is to validate a test anxiety scale for Italian students. The scale is part of a questionnaire administered after the students' annual competence test by the National Institute for the Educational Evaluation of Instruction and Training (INVALSI). The aim of the scale is to explore the anxiety levels of Italian students during the administration of the standardized tests at the end of the school year. A test anxiety scale has been adapted from the Motivational and Self-Regulated Learning Competence Questionnaire. In May 2009 the tests (Reading comprehension and Grammar, Math) and questionnaire were administered to a sample of 42,929 5th graders. According to Classical Test Theory, Cronbach's alpha coefficient of reliability (0.71) evaluates internal consistency of the scale. Anxiety level estimates for students, items and item thresholds--according to the Andrich Rating Scale Model (1978)--are obtained using software ConQuest. Results show that item threshold estimates are monotonous and well separated from each other, so that the more anxiety levels increase, the more the students' agreement with each item increases. Applied across gender groups the RSM (DIF analysis) reveals that gender should be taken into account in detecting test anxiety: females are more anxious than males (the model fits better for the female sample). At the same time, two of the items seem to work differently by gender. (Contains 6 figures, 6 tables, and 3 notes.) [This publication was produced by the INVALSI - National Institute for the Educational Evaluation of Instruction and Training.]

The author critiques the progressive approach of two contemporary educational philosophers (English and Stengel) on the topic of fear and learning. Using a postmodern integral approach, this article examines the tendency of reductionism, individualism, and psychologism as part of a hegemonic liberalism and modernism in discourses on fear and learning commonly adopted by educators. A critical fear management/education and "Fear" Studies agenda are posited as both a location for critique of the hidden curriculum in fear studies in general, and as a new site for a more productive and emancipatory discourses on fear and "fear" for a post-9/11 world. (Contains 67 footnotes.)