A policy forum held May 11-13, 2011 to provide input from stakeholders to the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) focused on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) accountability reporting system known as the State Performance Plan/Annual Performance Report (SPP/APR) process. Participants discussed their assessment of the…

The current research shows that distance learning has become a viable alternative to the traditional face-to-face classroom instruction in both K-12 and higher education. Therefore the course design and the quality of the content are essential in determining how teachers perceive a web based learning environment, and whether they adopt a deep or…

The report aims to help education authorities in Norway and other OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) countries to understand the importance of lower secondary education and to find approaches to strengthen this key education level. It provides an overview of the structure of lower secondary education and the main…

The POWERSOURCE[c] intervention is intended as a generalizable and powerful formative assessment strategy that can be integrated with any mathematics curriculum. POWERSOURCE[c] includes both a system of learning-based assessments and an infrastructure to support teachers' use of those assessments to improve student learning. The core undertaking…

Over the last several decades, research has questioned the effectiveness of the D.A.R.E.[c] (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program. D.A.R.E.[c] has also experienced cuts based on budget restrictions and personnel reallocations within police agencies, as well as competing demands for classroom time. Although concerted efforts have been made to…

This issue of "Legislative Review" takes a look at the news in higher education from March 28 to 31, 2011. This Legislative Review reports that: (1) Following a 7-4 "do pass" vote by the House Constitutional Revision Committee, HCR 3046 was approved by the House in a 50-42 vote on March 30; (2) HB 1036, a bill mandating a study of developmental…

In Australia, the state and territory governments are responsible for dealing with young people who are involved in crime. One major aspect of the juvenile justice system is the supervision of children and young people who have committed or are alleged to have committed an offence. This report presents information on the young people under…

The new normal for local, state and federal governments is fiscal austerity. Although President Obama supported education during his State of the Union address and in his budget proposal to Congress, cash-strapped localities and states--which foot most of the bill for educating America's children--may have to balance their budgets with cuts to…

Acceleration, which involves the reorganization of instruction and curricula in ways that facilitate the completion of academic requirements in an expedited manner, is an increasingly popular strategy at community colleges for improving the outcomes of developmental education students. This paper reviews the literature on acceleration and…

I will examine the literature and present the reasons teachers, especially novice teachers, leave the profession and or schools at an alarming rate. Though the educational literature touts viable ways to combat turnover and increase retention there are still deficits to be addressed. School psychologists have the skill set to address these…

This study in the context of National Curriculum Framework (2005) and constructivist approach to learning and critical pedagogy, gauges the attainment of upper primary students in Malayalam, science, social studies and mathematics in 2011 and compares it with that of their age group during 1999, in Kerala, India. Overall achievement of students…

The goal of the current study was to develop and validate a self-report questionnaire of preschool teachers' attitudes and beliefs toward science. In preparation for the current study, the research team developed the Preschool Teachers' Attitudes and Beliefs toward Science Questionnaire (P-TABS). The sample consists of 507 teachers: 98% female,…

With funding from the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the Virtual Performance Assessment project at the Harvard Graduate School of Education is developing and studying the feasibility of immersive virtual performance assessments (VPAs) to assess scientific inquiry of middle school students as a standardized component of an accountability…

Post-secondary outcomes for students with and without disabilities have been documented in transition research for over three decades. However, despite efforts to improve outcomes by the field of transition, former students with disabilities outcomes have remain lower than their non-disabled peers. Historically, the data, which has been collected…

University websites serve as sharing information with students whether prospective or enrolled. Often, before entering their departments, students visit them to have an idea as to what it would be like to be a part of that university and/or department. In that sense, websites help students in deciding whether the university matches their…