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Four ethnographic studies examining the impacts of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act on minority youth are analyzed. The studies explore differences in teacher pedagogy, curricular instruction, cultures, communities, and political influences, and their analysis addresses immediate problems of practice and also broad theoretical questions concerning NCLB through a qualitative approach.

Abstract This paper discusses a self assessment activity in a methods course for preservice English teachers. Students are asked to strategize responses to writing assignments of their own design and [...]

Interest in student coursework, especially in mathematics and science, has been rapidly increasing over the past decade, because the emerging global economy requires new generations to become more knowledgeable in […]

Abstract In Salzburg, for many years, special courses have been offered to students who are particularly gifted. In an evaluation, the students reported their perceptions of the learning situation on [...]

Over-all improvement of education may only be achieved by having clearly stated goals which all schools across the nation should strive for. If all teachers in all schools have a clear vision of what their students need to learn, then raising the quality of education would become a reality. However, despite the distribution of common curriculum guides to school districts, teachers' preferences on what topics to teach are the chief influence on subject coverage. Teachers also feel that the curriculum given them are unrealistic and cannot possibly be covered during the school year.

This meta-analysis summarizes research studies of evaluations of a technology-based curriculum of the Lightspan Partnership. The curriculum presents for elementary schools multimedia reading, language arts, and mathematics content on CD disks that utilize personal and video-game computers. The game-like curriculum is appropriate for home or school use. The 10 studies included in this research synthesis had (a) experimental and control groups, (b) 2,760 students with complete testing information, and (c) varying demographic attributes. There were significant effects for the program in several domains of curriculum.

The article details developments in New Zealand's curriculum assessment policy in 1998 and 1999. The paper includes current curriculum and assessment policy in the country's compulsory education sector, including requirements for the schools, assessment programs tracking individual students' achievement, that of whole cohorts of students, as well as samples of students for system-wide overviews.

This case study investigates how classroom discourse contributed to what content students learned during a Grade 8 social studies unit taught in two different classrooms. It used a purposive sample and entailed 8 weeks of nonparticipant observation of each teacher-class enactment of a unit about ancient Egyptian society. Field notes and lesson transcripts were coded to inductively identify kinds of messages, forms of discourse, patterning of forms of discourse associated with curriculum events, and system of discourse for each enactment of the unit. There were significant quantitative differences between and within classrooms in the content recalled from curriculum events. These content-learning differences were associated with the forms of discourse used within curriculum events and the system of classroom discourse that evolved during a unit.

Many curriculum guidelines and articles have stressed information skills instruction as an indispensible subject to attain a new curriculum goal. However, understanding of the importance of the formal instruction at the elementary school level is still incomplete. The purpose of presenting this paper is to address the significance of formal instruction for information skills at the elementary school level. To attain this goal, this paper has attempted to make a theoretical framework, and then, has examined through experiment whether the assumption was proved. The investigation has proved that formal instruction at the elementary school level is effective for acquiring information skills., Introduction The New Concept of Curriculum Traditionally, the goal of curriculum has been to transmit knowledge and facts from teacher to students, where students were expected to learn facts as [...]

This paper presents a discussion of school geography in the context of a broad cultural analysis. The intention is to clarify some of the potentials and pitfalls awaiting those implementing the National Curriculum Order and reveal the place of geography within the complex picture of sometimes conflicting interests in the education scene. It is suggested that the form geography has been given in the National Curriculum results from reaction to, and anxiety about, earlier trends in schools geography. Within the elaborate 'modernist' National Curriculum superstructure, designed to ensure accountability, geography teachers are now likely to feel constrained about what they teach and how they teach it. Thus, as well as redefining school geography, this curriculum reform reaches the very heart of teachers' self-image and their interpretation of 'teacher work'. The paper makes the case for a repackaging of National Curriculum Geography to make it less prescriptive of content and allow teachers more latitude; the present status quo, is likely to work against a questioning and contingent style of classroom learning which is in the best tradition of western cultural values.

An evaluation team from Boston University studied the instructional and testing practices in literacy in Chelsea's schools. The teaching techniques used in Chelsea were outmoded and the ways of evaluating a students' performance left much to be desired. A new plan was prepared, taking into consideration various flaws in the whole system of the teaching-learning process and focussing on developing a love of reading amongst children, rather than literacy skills alone.

The curriculum is an accepted construct in academic planning for secondary schools. Despite this, there is no existing theoretical basis for curriculum planning. As a result, both schools and teachers often disagree on school subjects and even on specific subject matter coverage. This competitive academic curriculum encourages teachers to plan their curriculum content with security of tenure and facility of teaching in mind. The institutionalization of curriculum patterns since the late 18th century in the UK are thereby discussed to illustrate how curriculum content, and not just form, should be taken into consideration in academic planning.

Teachers in arts education should play a greater role in assessing the value and contribution of arts programs in the schools. Curriculum evaluation in the arts requires closer attention to the expectations from and requirements for an arts education program and its practitioners.

Unethical behavior on the part of business corporations and their leaders has led many business executives and university administrators to call for the inclusion of ethics in MBA programs. This paper reviewed studies and commentary relating to the teaching of ethics in MBA programs in the United States. The results showed that ethics has not yet gained an integral place in the curricula of business schools. A plan of action for the systematic incorporation of ethics into the MBA curriculum was proposed based on the system model of training commonly used in the training field. In concluding, a question about the total responsibility of the business schools toward the promotion of ethical behavior on the part of their graduates was raised.

Throughout the 1980s, accountability was watch-word of public policy. Health, social service, and educational programs are--more than at any time in history--being required to demonstrate their effectiveness. The Teenage Health [...]

Introduction The employers of library and information science graduates are many and varied in nature. Designing an LIS educational program for diversified needs and expectations of the employers is very [...]

The introduction of a course on bridge design at the University of Connecticut is praiseworthy, since very few universities offer such a program. However, the course should not emphasize on report writing, student presentations and discussions at the expense of adopting programs which give students detail design experience. Bridge-design courses should prepare students for the tasks and demands they will confront in bridge-design offices as beginning engineers.

An activity that a teacher can undertake within the mathematics classes of various levels to help the students to understand the closure properties as they relate to various mathematical systems is discussed. This not only helps the students to review familiar sets and operations but also the teachers as they learn practical tips on teaching topics related to the secondary school mathematics curriculum.

Medical schools in the United Kingdom will be forced to drop their entry standards if they want to cope with declining applications and increasing places, according to a report in [...]

Further research is needed before the BMA WILL endorse the shortening of medical degree courses. In a new report, the association explores the provision of shortened degree courses and concludes [...]

Abstract Australia has developed a national strategy to encourage an intersectoral approach to environmental health and the creation of an environment that promotes good health and prevents problems. This strategy [...]

ALTHOUGH the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) was never intended to measure the quality of education and was never linked to any curriculum, there has been increased interest of [...]

The authors contend that, to be effective, professional development should address three dimensions of school capacity ' teachers' knowledge, skills, and dispositions; the strength of the schoolwide professional community; and [...]