This article discusses an online graduate education course at George Mason University in the United States. The course, part of a certificate program for International Baccalaureate (IB) educators, focuses on infusing human rights instruction in PK-12 classrooms and provides teachers with additional methods and strategies to teach various…

Earning college credit in high school matters to students and parents. Students who earn college credits by taking a college-level course while in high school are more likely to enter college and succeed. Through these experiences, students become familiar with college expectations, academic behaviors, and habits of mind; get a head start on…

Have efforts to improve schools neglected high achievers? A growing chorus of critics is voicing concern for the achievement gap, but not the gap between well-to-do and poor students, or white and non-white students. The gap that most worries them is the one between U.S. students and students in other industrialized nations. Among the 34 nations…

Can school be structured so that all students are held to high expectations? Can curriculum be designed to find and nurture students with gifted potential from underrepresented populations? Can basic skills be strengthened so that such students can interact, compete, and work with other gifted learners? Young Scholars (YS) is a K-8 model that…

Nearly 7,000 students drop out of the nation's public high schools each school day, and 3,000 of them are in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Altogether, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers in the United States abandon high school each year without earning a diploma. In 1,700 of the nation's high schools, less than 60 percent of…

As Internet technology encroached on the public school classroom about a decade ago, Kim Ross, superintendent of the Houston School District in Houston, Minnesota, saw an opportunity. At first, he and his administrative team simply wanted to offer students in the district of 1,300 access to more classes via the web than what a district that size…

In Virginia, distance learning means the "Electronic Classroom," which is a distance education program of two-way audio and one-way video broadcast transmission of instruction from Varina High School (since September 1984) and Wise Vocational-Technical School (since September 1987). Each distance learning receive classroom is equipped…

Annandale High School, Virginia, has come up with an International Baccalaureate (IB) program for high-achieving students, which also provides essential support for diverse students. The IB program is just one facet of a school culture at Annandale High that aims to increase opportunities for all students.

"The Achiever" is a monthly publication for parents and community leaders from the Office of Communications and Outreach, U.S. Department of Education (ED). Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. Highlights of this issue include: (1) Budget Proposal Advances NCLB, Introduces…

"The Achiever" is a monthly newsletter designed expressly for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. The highlights of this issue include: (1) Report Finds U.S. Higher Education in Need of Change; (2) Meeting a Critical Need: Foreign Languages, Academic Rigor…