The author reports the results of a nationwide survey of school board members which show a shift in focus toward student achievement and away from district-management issues known as the "killer B's": buses, buildings, books, budgets, and bonds. But today's school board members appear not to be as interested in issues that many policy observers…

In this article the issues of validity and reliability in the assessment of the learning outcomes of WIL curricula are considered. An argument is made that there are three classes of learning outcome for WIL curricula: experience of the work-world; the development or refinement of skills; and the application of disciplinary knowledge in work…

This article provides a history of the Professional Development School (PDS) movement in Kansas, as well as the major influences and challenges ahead as partnerships continue to grow and adapt. Mercer and Myers highlight the Kansas State Department of Education's (KSDE's) engagement in dialogue about the professional learning continuum of licensed…

The International Baccalaureate's Middle Years Programme (IBMYP) is designed to support the development of creativity, critical thinking, international-mindedness and values. However, close inspection of the programme's assessment structure suggests that many of the competence-related and dispositional elements of the programme's…

This study was conducted in an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of an educational card game we developed for learning human immunology. Two semesters of evaluation were included to examine the impact of the game on students' understanding and perceptions of the game-based instruction. Ninety-nine senior high school students (11th graders)…

Road map problems ask students to integrate their knowledge of organic reactions with pattern recognition skills to "fill in the blanks" in the synthesis of an organic compound. Students are asked to identify familiar organic reactions in unfamiliar contexts. A practical context, such as a medicinally useful target compound, helps…

Members of the technology and engineering education community have provided a clear message that (Standards for Technological Literacy) STL provides multiple opportunities to teach engineering concepts within K-12 education. This article will review recent research within technology education and the technological literacy standards…

In this study the relationship between intended course objectives and teaching effectiveness was investigated. Teaching effectiveness was indexed through student evaluations of teaching (SETs) and lecturer self-evaluations (LSEs), with a focus on course evaluation. Rated learning of intended course objectives was derived by two parallel…

Colleges of business must meet assurance of learning requirements to gain or maintain AACSB accreditation under the new standards adopted April 8, 2013. Team skills are among the most important skills desired by recruiters, yet employers and scholars perceive that team skills are frequently deficient in college graduates. This article describes…

Evolutionary history and structural considerations constrain all aspects of animal physiology. Constraints on invertebrate locomotion are especially straightforward for students to observe and understand. In this exercise, students use spiders to investigate the concepts of adaptation, structure-function relationships, and trade-offs. Students…

Social work education grounded in social work practice has been recently challenged to examine the role of science in its history, core constructs and domains, philosophical underpinnings, and graduate curriculum. Doctoral education has been added to the scrutiny at the recent Science in Social Work Roundtable in Doctoral Education. Based on Lev…

European countries are striving to increase secondary school completion rates as part of their labor market planning. Denmark has taken an approach that places youth education guidance counselors at the center of their efforts. Based on interviews with 25 counselors and 10 other education leaders, this article explores the role and practice of…

Assessing student performance is a central challenge for music educators. In alignment with previous research, this article asserts that rubrics provide a viable and useful structure for assessing music performance. To expand the potential of rubrics in music education, challenges to effective rubric construction are identified and addressed…

Students with disabilities are often faced with numerous challenges as they progress through their school years. In addition to disability-related challenges, they may encounter additional difficulties such as bullying in school and lack of social acceptance by their peers. It is important that students with disabilities develop competence in…

Providing training for pre-service teachers at historic sites necessitates a reorientation for historic site-based teacher education programs away from strict content learning towards programs that emphasize the modeling of disciplinary problem solving and transfer learning. Outlined here is a History Lab model for teacher education that uses the…