It is reasonable to argue that the members of a profession are the only ones who can directly address issues of accreditation. In the context of accreditation for international continuing education, it may be argued that professional organizations in continuing education cannot function as accrediting bodies except in the sense that they determine…

Too many researchers have built careers on the quantitative/qualitative research debate. Social scientists have largely abandoned their responsibility for popular education, focusing primarily on schooling's limitations, rather than its potential for furthering social progress. Standard-setting is highly politicized; research is becoming too…

Explores the complexity of developing and identifying national curriculum content standards. This article introduces other articles on developing standards for studies in mathematics, social studies, English, the sciences, and advanced placement studies. The challenges for national standards are examined with awareness of the importance of these…

Explores and contrasts early efforts to set standards in mathematics and social studies, juxtaposing California's revisions of its history and social science curricula and the standard-setting approach of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Both programs achieved success in part because of their development strategies. (SLD)

To facilitate the discussion of national education standards, this workbook extracts examples of education standards from eight documents that describe what students should be taught, or what they should know or be able to do in various subjects. These examples illustrate and document some existing standards, and should help policy makers sharpen…

Approaches to equitable performance standards and assessment are discussed with three points of focus. First, the work of the National Education Goals Panel is described, with particular attention to Goal 3, Student Achievement and Citizenship, and the Panel's efforts to establish world-class standards of performance. National standards are…

This videotape cassette portrays the role of portfolios for educational improvement through assessment in a California classroom participating in the Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT) educational technology program. Elementary school students at the Stevens Creek School used computers for writing assignments, and included the best of their…

The findings of an ethnographic study of schooling and work in a small rural community in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York are reported. More than half the school children in the community live in poverty. Research explores the relationships between patterns of adult work and the schooling of children, and between schooled and…

For too many graduates, the American high school diploma signifies only a broken promise. While students and their parents may still believe that the diploma reflects adequate preparation for the intellectual demands of college or work, employers and postsecondary institutions know that it often serves as little more than a certificate of…

The article present results of standardization of the Meadow-Kendall Social-Emotional Assessment Inventory for Deaf and Hearing-Impaired Students (Meadow, 1983), school-age version, for use in Turkey. The SEAI is a 59-item measure for assessing socioemotional adjustment of school-age deaf and hearing impaired students. A sample of 1,097 deaf…

The major challenge that school districts face is to improve the learning of all students, not just in individual schools, but across the entire system of schools. Duval County, Florida has embarked on a remarkable journey to implement standards-based reform in schools throughout the district with the intent to systematically improve teaching and…

The High School diploma has lost its value because what it takes to earn one is disconnected from what it takes for graduates to compete successfully beyond high school--either in the classroom or in the workplace. Re-establishing the value of the diploma will require the creation of an inextricable link between high school exit expectations and…

In 1993 the Council for Basic Education assisted in the drafting of academic standards for the students of the Chicago (Illinois) Public Schools. The results of this project, the Chicago Learning Outcomes, are now the official basis for designing new curricula, citywide assessments, and professional development throughout the district. The Chicago…

This report aims to encourage the wider use of target setting for individual students and trainees in the learning and skills sector, defined as the provision of post-16 further and continuing education and training, funded and inspected in England by the new Learning and Skills Council. Section 1 addresses types of targets for individual students…

Reviews efforts to develop national content standards for teaching English. Today's standards movements are distinguished from earlier efforts in that the learner is recognized as active, the meaning is socially and historically contingent, and the purpose is the development of language for political power and the creation and appreciation of…