When CLEAPSS, the organisation now well known as a source of advice on health and safety in school science, came into being, it was called the Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Equipment (CLEAPSE). This short article describes the role of the Science Masters' Association in its creation and the contribution of…

Over the past two years, through an NSF RCN UBE grant, the ASBMB has held regional workshops for faculty members and science educators from around the country that focused on identifying: 1) core principles of biochemistry and molecular biology, 2) essential concepts and underlying theories from physics, chemistry, and mathematics, and 3)…

The training model for Southwest University's no-fee teacher education program has taken shape over several years. Based on a review of the documentation and interviews with administrators and no-fee preservice students from different specialties, this article analyzes Southwest University's no-fee teacher-training model in terms of three main…

This article explores historical debates over the relationship of composition to rhetoric, arguing that these debates resonate with contemporary arguments about first year writing and undergraduate and graduate programs in writing and rhetoric. Analyzing early scholars' articulations of the differing aims of undergraduate and graduate studies,…

There are multiple organizations striving to professionalize child and youth care (CYC) across North America. Two voices that appear to have been excluded from this dialogue are the young people CYCs work with and those who come to work in the field outside of formal training. This article asks who defines CYC practice, what the implications are…

In this article about the Common Core State Standards and mathematics, the author wanted to point out what's familiar in these standards and to give teachers clear access to what's different about them. She wanted to emphasize what has made her passionate about the Common Core standards--which is their two-part structure: Standards for…

The nature of science (NOS) has become a central goal of science education in many countries. This study sought an understanding of the extent to which a nature of science course (NOSC), designed according to the conceptualization of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching nature of science (NOS), affects in-service science teachers'…

The current paper highlights the few studies that examine the role of early care and education on the developmental and early academic outcomes of children who experience maltreatment. First, we argue that children who experience maltreatment are at significant risk for poor developmental outcomes as a result of the chronic exposure to stress that…

Many people have ideas about what it means to teach in inner-city schools, but they are often off the mark. This essay explores the challenges, beauties, and complexities of working in an alternative/transfer school in New York City, with a population that is at very high risk for dropping out. Through individual portraits of students, the author…

Standards-based grading (SBG) is an approach to assessment and reporting in which scores are attached to the specific learning objectives of a course, rather than to assignments or tests. Each score represents a student's mastery of that learning objective, and may change over time in response to evidence that her level of understanding has…

A growing number of school districts--including large ones like those in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Hawaii--have become recent converts to new principal-evaluation systems that tie school leaders' appraisals to student test scores. As of this school year, student achievement accounts for 40 percent to 50 percent of principals' evaluations…

This article is an investigation of two apparently contradictory impulses in Oakeshott's writings about liberal education. On the one hand, he implied that it was primarily "aesthetic", something undertaken for its own sake with no practical consequences. On the other hand, he often implied that a student might undergo a moral transformation in…

In 1990 Helon Howell Raines published "Is There a Writing Program in This College? Two Hundred and Thirty-Six Two-Year Schools Respond," in which she reported on her study, via survey and eight follow-up telephone interviews, of two-year college writing programs across the country. Raines asked questions about departmental and institutional…

Across the United States, a wide cross-section of administrators and teachers are learning the ins and outs of setting, assessing, and scoring student learning objectives (SLOs). An SLO is a set of goals that measures an educator's progress in achieving student growth targets. SLOs are particularly helpful for teachers in nontested subjects and…

A key factor in mentoring effectiveness and satisfaction is ensuring that mentor preparation training and ongoing support address needed mentor knowledge and abilities (MKAs). Knowing how to mentor is different from knowing what mentoring involves or knowing mentoring policies and procedures. Ideally, mentor training incorporates both the…