This paper is an examination of the divide that exists between academic and vocational curricula in American public high schools. This divide is a separation of the two curricular pathways which induces students and others to see vocational education as an inferior curriculum. Due to this perception many students may choose the academic curriculum…

The changing demographic and economic structures in the United States dictate that policy makers at the federal, state, and organizational levels of education pay closer attention to college recruitment and enrollment trends. These trends point to the need for an aggressive approach to moving the educational system into the 21st century by…

Professional development practices in schools have been changing recently, particularly with the mandates regarding professional development through No Child Left Behind. In 2001, the National Staff Development Council revised its standards of professional development to shift thinking in this area and reflect the changing needs of schools,…

This article discusses factors related to eventual high school credentials among dropouts. Using the National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88/00), the current study found that approximately two-thirds of the sample of high school dropouts eventually attained some form of high school credentials within eight years of their class…

Questions regarding the value of standardized testing have been raised by community and school leaders, as well as parents and members of the media. Some have expressed concern that children today are placed under such pressure to perform well on standardized tests that the anxiety adversely affects performance outcomes. This study examined the…

The Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PI-R) was developed to operationalize the Five-Factor Model of Personality. Using correlational analysis and confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, the present study investigates the facet structure of the domain of Agreeableness of the NEO-PI-R at the facet and item level to assess which is a more…

This study used a Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) approach to investigate relationships between student motivation, higher-order thinking skills, quality of teaching and learning, teacher student relations, student satisfaction with course contribution to their learning, and active learning strategies, with a sample of 2,190 undergraduate…

This paper explores the nature and extent of outsourcing by higher education institutions, benefits and challenges associated with outsourcing, and the implications of outsourcing for effective management. The principal investigator conducted a national study of outsourcing by four-year colleges and universities at two points in time, 1998-99 and…

In 1993, the state of Massachusetts implemented comprehensive reforms that included increased state aid to local school districts. This study presents empirical evidence on whether these reforms actually increased educational spending and, if so, in what functional areas. These evaluations are based on relatively detailed annual financial data…

In 1998, Massachusetts instituted a $20,000 Signing Bonus to address concerns about the supply of quality teachers. This article reports on a longitudinal, qualitative study of the experiences of 13 of the original 59 recipients of the Signing Bonus, and analyzes their responses to various incentives embedded within the Massachusetts Signing Bonus…

It is widely accepted that teachers differ in their effectiveness, yet the empirical evidence regarding teacher effectiveness is weak. The existing evidence is mainly drawn from econometric studies that use covariates to attempt to control for selection effects that might bias results. We use data from a four-year experiment in which teachers and…

National Board Certification represents one of the most significant reform efforts in the area of teacher quality in the last two decades. Since the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) certified its first round of teachers in 1995, approximately 32,000 teachers have become certified at a cost to the country of well over $300…

This analysis considers the role district policy environments play in the lives of beginning teachers. As part of a larger longitudinal study of teacher learning in the language arts, the authors analyzed the experiences of three first-year teachers in two contrasting school districts. This article assesses the role of policies concerning…

In New York City, where almost 14% of elementary school pupils are foreign-born and roughly half these are "recent immigrants," the impact of immigrant students on school resources may be important. While immigrant advocates worry about inequitable treatment of immigrant students, others worry that immigrants drain resources from native-born…

The purposes of this article are (a) to describe drug search policies in nationally representative samples of schools from 1998 to 2001 and (b) to examine the association between drug searches by schools and reported drug use by students. Most schools (86%) reported searching students for cause or suspicion, while 40% of schools reported randomly…