Discusses the findings of a parent and teacher survey about communicating children's school progress, noting a mutual dissatisfaction with standardized test scores. Discusses the information parents want, ways to improve teacher-parent communication, and questions teachers should ask themselves about their assessments of students. (JPB)

Longitudinal data about individual students and groups of students can be used to track their progress in ways that hold district-level administrators, school principals, and teachers responsible for what's happening in schools. The key is to examine data that show how well individual students perform in specific classrooms in specific schools.…

Describes an education reform consisting of a science education curriculum of which environmental education has become an integral part to emphasize higher order thinking skills and connections to the world beyond the classroom. Discusses instruction, assessment, and organization of school sites with this reform. (ASK)

Since the mid 1990s of last Century, university rankings have become very popular in China. Six institutions have published such rankings; some of them have also detailed their ranking methodologies. This paper features a general introduction to university ranking in China, and to the methodologies of each ranking discussed. The paper also…

This commentary reviews "Negotiating Researcher Roles in Ethnographic Program Evaluation" and discusses the changing field of evaluation. It situates postmodern deliberations in evaluation anthropology and ethnoevaluation, two concepts that explore the interdisciplinary merger in evaluation, ethnography, and anthropology. Reflecting on Hymes's…

This article draws on a survey of 83 teachers, to explore the concepts of 'assessment for learning', 'assessment' and 'learning'. 'Assessment for learning' is categorized as meaning: monitoring pupils' performance against targets or objectives; using assessment to inform next steps in teaching and learning; teachers giving feedback for…

This paper reports the initial results of a study that was designed to develop and test an instrument that could identify the elements of an individual's capacity for lifelong learning. We anticipated that the components of this capacity would include a complex mix of dispositions, lived experiences, social relations, values, attitudes and beliefs…

One of the top questions about the No Child Left Behind Act, both before and after its passage, was "why isn't adequate yearly progress based on growth rather than just on year-to-year snapshots?" Now, three years into the implementation of this sweeping federal education law, the winds of change are blowing in Washington, and the use of…

It is easier to talk about a desire to create a report card for higher education--to evaluate its success--than to actually do it. While some objective data are available, success also depends upon the choice of relevant criteria. This choice and the interpretation of the data vary depending upon the view one brings to the study. Moreover, it is…

Language-minority students are the fastest-growing population in U.S. public schools. During the 1990s, their numbers rose from 8 million to 15 million. These include new immigrant students as well as students from Native American and indigenous backgrounds. Research shows that the distribution of "extremely bright," "average" and "cognitively…

Developed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is a regular survey to assess the preparedness of 15-year-olds for adult life in over 40 countries/regions. Hong Kong joined PISA in 2000. This article introduces the background and framework of PISA and…

This is a descriptive study that analyzes learners' use of comprehension aids such as objectives, a glossary and links between pages in a hypermedia tutorial. Students read a short hypermedia tutorial on the topic of E. coli. Relationships between the use of the comprehension aids and individual characteristics such as metacognitive awareness and…

Since 1990, the privately organized Teach For America has deployed more than 10,000 graduates to disadvantaged schools plagued by teacher shortages. The recruits take part in five-week summer institutes that include four weeks of student teaching. Because states have begun stepping up their requirements for Teach For America participants, most…

This edition of the PPIC Statewide Survey is the third in a series of surveys funded by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation focusing on education in California. This survey is intended to raise public awareness, inform decisionmakers, and stimulate public discussions about a variety of education issues facing the state. Findings are based on…

From 1979 to 2002, Afghanistan was in a near constant state of war and exhibited some of the lowest levels of development in the world. While local conflicts and Taliban remnants continue to challenge Afghanistan's reconstruction and stabilization, significant progress has been made since the 2001 U.S. led invasion and subsequent fall of the…