Providing advanced training to individuals in specialized disciplinary areas is one of the primary purposes of universities' graduate programs. Typically these programs are selective and require that a number of criteria be met, such as successful completion of undergraduate education, and a selected range of scores on standardized exams. For…

For all the fractious debate in America over the state of public schools, those on the political Left and Right agree that the "achievement gaps" are real. But what do most people mean when they say "achievement gaps"? Gaps in standardized test scores, of course. The gaps consist of the differences between the test scores of…

This paper presents and critically analyzes data from a project that sought teacher candidates' responses to the process and content of the Ontario Teacher Qualifying Test (OTQT), a mandatory, standardized, pencil and paper initial teacher qualification test. The aim of the project, guided by a critical democratic perspective, was to critically…

The history of young adolescent education can be viewed as an ongoing search for the appropriate combination of school organization, curriculum, and instructional practices for young adolescents. While middle schools have now become the most common pattern for schools housing young adolescents, there have always been other broader school…

Under the federal law, students at all public schools are expected to become "proficient"--as defined by each state--by the end of 2013-14 school year. The law requires steady academic progress overall and by subgroups of students, such as poor and minority youngsters. The law dishes out increasingly tough consequences for Title I schools that…

Because a significant portion of U.S. students lacks critical mathematic skills, schools across the country are investing heavily in computerized curriculums as a way to enhance education output, even though there is surprisingly little evidence that they actually improve student achievement. In this paper we present results from a randomized…

As part of its work in developing a performance accountability framework for higher education, the Commission conducted an analysis of student performance on standardized tests at the high school and middle school levels. National test results show that California is behind most other states in giving its students a high school education of the…

Research shows that language-minority students both do poorly on standardized tests, and receive low academic ratings from their teachers (August & Hakuta, 1998). Explanations for the low performance, however, are limited. This is at least partially due to the fact that language-minority status is intimately entangled with issues related to…

This manual offers states a tool to assist in the development or enhancement of guidelines for access assistants. Whether a state already has guidelines or is just in the process of establishing them, this manual will provide structure to the process and many examples of criteria already included by states. This manual was developed to accompany…

Every spring, education-related newspaper and magazine stories raise the alarm that schools are "teaching to the test." Scores of articles and editorials paint a disheartening picture of frustrated teachers forced to abandon good instructional practices for a relentless stream of worksheets based on boring, repetitive test-preparation…

The latest efforts in reform and accountability, most of which are replays of efforts enacted in the early 1980s, include the use of required minimum standardized test scores to end the practice of social promotion. Greater reliance is being placed on the use of single test scores in making all or a large part of the retention decision, despite…

The current preoccupation in the United States with test-based accountability is founded on a set of faulty assumptions--about education practices elsewhere in the world, about international test score comparisons, and about the extent to which test scores are valid indicators of the quality of education or the state of the economy. For example,…

Three key contributions of Iris Young to democratic political theory, and three challenges that have arisen in response to Young's theory, are examined here in relation to education. First, Young has argued that oppression and domination, not distributive inequality, ought to guide discussions about justice. Second, eliminating oppression requires…

Many educators contend that standardized assessments coerce instructors into teaching-to-the-test, a method which they claim promotes rote learning, limits academic growth and marginalizes at-risk learners. However, this researcher asserts that when underachieving developmental community college students are instructed with techniques congruent…

This article explores the use of documentation--to observe, record, and interpret the learning of children and their pre-service teachers to make that learning visible in order to point to it and engage in a collaborative dialogue. Inspired by the work of the Reggio Emilia infant-toddler and pre-schools in Italy, this study extends the idea of…