In this paper Cognitive Abilities Test scores are compared directly with moderated GCSE scores awarded to the same group of pupils. For ease of interpretation the comparisons are presented in a graphical form. Whilst some provisional and tentative conclusions are drawn about the reliability of GCSE art, questions are raised about the general…

The idea of leaving no child behind may sound like a noble dream. But the federal law intended to fulfill that dream is in Houston's opinion so flawed that it has become a nightmare for educators. Sadly, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is a nightmare in which everyone is naked while being pushed off a cliff because of poor test performance.…

The federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 (the latest revision of ESEA) has exerted strong pressure on the states to encourage local public schools to improve their standardized test scores. This emphasis reflects a desire on the part of politicians and policy makers for strict accountability in the form of current test scores that can…

Over the past two decades, remarkable strides have been made in examining, documenting, and incorporating race and gender issues in history courses, but it is time to take a look at the ways in which these curricular and pedagogical changes have impacted the Advanced Placement United States History Examination. This paper focuses on three…

We looked at the effects of teaching 7- and 8-year-old children morphological and phonological distinctions. Some of those given morphological training and some of those given phonological training were also taught how to represent these distinctions in writing. All 4 intervention groups did better than the control group in a standardized test of…

Interview participants comprised a purposive, theoretical sample of 10 senior education policy leaders from across Australia. Participants argued that the current bureaucratic organization of schooling would persist in the future because of intensifying pressure for schools to satisfy diverse political priorities; current funding arrangements had…

In this article, the author argues that maintaining the SATs regime and all it has done to damage students and teachers represents something unforgivable in the education policy of the government. He contends that a way must be found to rid the schools of SATs and all that they embody, and replace them with something more worthy of students and…

The authors investigated the relationship between perceived effectiveness of elementary school faculty groups as a whole and student performances on standardized tests. Participants included the principal and all teachers, referred to as the faculty group, in 61 elementary schools. Members of the faculty group in each school completed the Group…

Founded in 1857 "to elevate the character and advance the interests of the profession of teaching and to promote the cause of education in the United States," the National Education Association has a long history of fighting for the rights of educators across the nation. That type of activism continues today as the challenges facing…

This study examined the school experiences and academic achievement of 46 adolescents in families who experienced homelessness and 87 permanently housed adolescents whose families received public assistance. Measures taken after the homeless students were rehoused showed that both groups valued school highly and were similar in cognitive abilities…

This research investigates two major aspects of homeschooling. Factors determining parental motivations to homeschool and the determinants of the student achievement of home-educated children are identified. Original survey data from an organized group of homeschoolers is analyzed. Regression models are employed to predict parents' motivations and…

In the wake of both the end of court-ordered school desegregation and the growing popularity of accountability as a mechanism to maximize student achievement, the authors explore the association between racial segregation and the percentage of students passing high-stakes tests in Florida's schools. Results suggest that segregation matters in…

This report highlights the evaluation of a parent education program conducted with an urban middle school in Southern California. The program called "PASSport to Success" enables parents to learn study skills and how to better teach their children how to study in school. This evaluative report conducted a pretest and a posttest on…

This article reports on how an incorrectly graded licensing exam for prospective teachers has stalled hiring in some places, sent school districts rummaging through employment records, and spawned at least one lawsuit so far. Those affected by the mistake range from 35 test-takers in Georgia to roughly 1200 in Ohio. Eighteen states use the Praxis…

Oppositional culture accounts for race/ethnic differences in school achievement and the theory explains why male students tend to receive lower grades despite standardized test scores that equal or exceed the scores of female students. It is concluded that resistance to school is gender based and researchers should be more sensitive to gender…