Much of the argument about comparability of examination standards is at cross-purposes; contradictory positions are in fact often both defensible, but they are using the same words to mean different things. To clarify this, two broad conceptualisations of standards can be identified. One sees the standard in the observed phenomena of performance…

Before revising the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation under the new administration, policy makers need to be informed as to whether or not the NCLB labeling formula adequately distinguishes good-quality schools from poor-quality schools. This study tests this question, using rich descriptive data for Milwaukee's urban school district (MPS).…

Possibly the largest qualitative study in RE policy and practice in many years, the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society project "Does RE work? An analysis of the aims, practices and models of effectiveness in religious education in the UK", headed by the University of Glasgow, seeks to map the complex processes of curriculum formation as…

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) schools were set up as centres of excellence in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration, so that other schools could copy their model in e-learning. It was for this reason that they were provided with computers, e-materials, internet appliances and trained personnel. But to…

In the international policy debate, environmental education and education for sustainable development seem to be moving away from a focus on behavioural modifications to more pluralistic approaches. This article illuminates a Swedish example of a strategic interplay between evaluation, development and research that relates to this shift, involving…

This paper seeks to examine the quality and equality of basic education of Hong Kong based on the first three cycles of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Results from these three assessments suggested that the Hong Kong students have an outstanding performance in mathematics, science and reading. In particular, the…

In England there is a national survey of all students just before they graduate from bachelor's programmes called the National Student Survey (NSS). This produces a very influential ranking of all universities and colleges in England in terms of how the education they provide is perceived by their students. Top of this ranking every year is the…

Purpose: The purpose of this directory was to identify, describe, and evaluate evidence that the education practices improve academic performance, close the achievement gap, and improve persistence towards graduation for low-income, first-generation, and historically-underrepresented 6th grade through college students. Method: The sample for the…

This technical brief describes the large-scale assessment measures and practices used in the jurisdictions served by the Pacific Regional Educational Laboratory. The need for effective large-scale assessment was identified as a major priority for improving student achievement in the Pacific Region jurisdictions: American Samoa, Guam, Hawaii, the…

The purpose of this study is to describe the No Child Left Behind requirements for state standards and assessment systems. It examined official documents and peer review decision letters and included interviews with state assessment directors in the Central Region to highlight the challenges states face in developing and implementing approved…

Many states, and the United States as a whole, are doing a better job than they were two years ago of preparing students for college and expanding access to higher education, according to a national report card on higher education released last week. But the country continues to slip behind other nations on measures of enrollment and degree…

This article presents a detailed description of the powerful and necessary role which technology can play in the information-age paradigm of education described in the four articles comprising this series. This article calls for a learning management system (LMS), a comprehensive and integrated application of technology to the learning process,…

Accountability efforts at California's community colleges gained prominence in the 1990s under an agreement known as Partnership for Excellence (PFE) that involved the chancellor's office, the legislature, and the governor's office. This agreement was the first wide-ranging accountability effort undertaken by the state's community college system.…

Since the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, teachers and parents have witnessed a series of heated debates on the most basic issues of literacy assessment-what to assess and how to assess it. In particular, the controversy rages over DIBELS and OSELA, two popular early literacy assessment instruments. The purpose of this article is to address the…

Lawmakers have been putting increasing pressure on private colleges to spend more of their endowments on student aid. Just a few weeks ago, members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee sent letters to dozens of institutions with endowments of at least $500-million, demanding detailed information about how they manage those endowments, how much…