States are establishing high stakes assessments to serve as measurement tools of students' academic abilities. This study essentially compares Maryland's and Florida's mathematics and science assessments for similarities and differences. Building from 5-10 years of student level quantitative data (secondary data) and critical analyses of the…

Assessing the achievement of students in elementary and secondary schools and the nation's educational progress is fundamental to informing education policy approaches. Congressional interest in this area includes and extends beyond the annual assessments administered by states to comply with the educational accountability requirements of Title…

The purpose of this historical study was to investigate the inclusion of students with special needs in school-based, agricultural education as reported by The Agricultural Education Magazine and the Journal of Agricultural Education over a time period of six decades. The impact of landmark legislation, such as the Vocational Education Act of…

Given the contextual conditions in each country, the United States, Korea, and China all have their own unique history of special education, which leads to different special education and service systems for students with special needs. The purpose of this paper is to compare the development and current status of special education in all three…

The aim of this essay is to advance understandings of current efforts to democratize disciplined approaches to educational innovation and improvement in the US and other countries, with a specific focus on the macro-level policy contexts of improvement research in education. In the US, earlier analyses examined these policy contexts from a…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), signed in 1965, was a pivotal civil rights law to address the dream of equitable education for all children on the mainland and in U.S. territories. The ESEA was followed by the Bilingual Education Act (BEA), signed by President Johnson in 1968. The BEA specifically addressed the necessities of…

The 2013 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 49th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The Digest has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American…

Based on data released December 3, 2013, from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), this Alliance for Excellent Education report reveals that the United States struggles to produce top performers in reading, math, and science at the rates of its international peers. These students, who the report calls the "deepest…

This paper provides an analysis of inclusive education policies across international, and Anglo-American national and provincial/state jurisdictions to reveal how policies discursively construct inclusion under current, increasingly neoliberal conditions. In making this case, the paper draws upon primary UNESCO and Organisation for Economic…

The 2012 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 48th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

Background: Since the passage of "Brown v. Board of Education" in 1954, the demographic landscape of American schools has changed dramatically. By 2011, there were 12.4 million Latinos enrolled in prekindergarten to 12th-grade public schools, which constitutes 23.9% of the U.S. student population. A primary challenge that faces schools…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Wave Goodbye to Waivers?: Key House Republicans Challenge Duncan's Plan to Grant Waivers to NCLB Requirements; (2)…

As the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is implemented, states are evaluating their accountability systems to gauge these systems' alignment with ESSA stipulations. The implementation of ESSA provides states with opportunities to change the compositions of their accountability systems and to select indicators that are aligned with their visions…

A larger scale context for power teaching includes ideas from Duane Elgin, Lester Brown, Al Gore and many others. Collectively, they say the convergence of systems level global problems without national borders place before humankind a choice the species has never encountered in 195,000 years of life on "Spaceship Earth." In Elgin's…

Multiple policy strategies exist to promote equity and inclusion in education and training systems. Across countries, the provision of additional resources to students with special educational needs is a common strategy; previous research indicates that providing extra resources to students with special educational needs can help those students…