This article offers an overview of the framework that Sampson County Public Schools (North Carolina) used to critically reflect on the current state of their middle grades schools. The article also highlights the changes that resulted from the district-wide analysis and the ways in which these changes led to a significant increase in the academic…

It is imperative that to transform the national education agenda so that each and every child may succeed. Members, thought partners, and staff of CCSSO, have worked in collaboration to identify four areas of focus that will lead the systems change necessary for a true transformation of teaching and learning. Those areas are Next Generation…

Designed to protect the privacy of individual student test scores, grades, and other education records, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 places limits the access of educational researches, and slows research not only in education but also in related fields, such as child welfare and health. Recent trends have converged…

Creating programs and curricular offerings that are standards-based is a worthwhile goal that can best be achieved by using the many and varied resources available to educators and others. This article describes several such resources, including the ITEA Annual Conference, ITEA-CATTS Standards Specialists, ITEA-CATTS Engineering byDesign[TM]…

Increasingly, teachers rely on computer software and networks to both enhance curriculum management and provide engaging learning opportunities in instruction. New software is enabling more frequent formative assessments to better focus day-to-day lessons on the unique needs of individual learners. Administrators use increasingly complex data…

Science teachers nationwide share many of the same aspirations and challenges, such as the increasing pressure to improve students' test scores. No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires each state to create academic standards and proficiency levels in math, reading, and science that all students must meet by 2014. A testing program to assess…

This paper provides a comprehensive set of guidelines for building an online course based on the e-learning standards. It discusses the steps that should be followed to build a digital repository that facilitates the storage, retrieval, and reuse of the learning resources that comprise an online course in a standard way. The paper also examines…

Now that all 50 states and the District of Columbia are building statewide longitudinal data systems, the next step is to ensure that the information in these systems is used to improve student learning. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has identified 10 actions that states can take to ensure that the right data are available and accessible and…

Selected data drawn from national sources are statistically refined to construct a microcomputer-based model for monitoring academic quality and simulating the effects of management decisions. The method, illustrated for doctoral institutions here, can be used for colleges at any level, across institutions, and over time. (MSE)

The Ohio State University School of Education has developed a plan and established a data base to provide information to respond to anticipated accreditation visits. A format was designed to determine the breadth and depth of all standards by comparing and contrasting National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards with…

Online communities are meeting places for learners on the Internet designed to facilitate interaction and collaboration among people who share common interests and needs. Most participants are drawn by an opportunity to share a sense of community with like-minded strangers, regardless of were they live. School communities can be distinguished by…

The San Diego Community College District (SDCCD), in California, is a multi-college district in which many students cross-enroll in two or more colleges. Beginning in 1978, the District began efforts to align courses and programs across the individual colleges, including the implementation of districtwide accreditation and procedures related to…

This paper describes the efforts at an American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredited college as the school responded to the new mission-driven management expectations and prepared for the formal review of its accreditation status by the AACSB. Under the direction of Computer Information Systems (CIS) faculty, end-user…

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), state education agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) have stepped up activities to broadly expand their data collection and reporting systems. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) has advocated strongly for states to build robust student-level longitudinal data systems based on…