Out-of-school, community demographic and family-level variables have an important influence on student achievement as measured by large-scale standardized tests. Studies described here demonstrated that about half of the test score is accounted for by variables outside the control of teachers and school administrators. The results from these…

Do school uniforms make a difference in student academic performance, school spirit, discipline, and safety? What are the legal restrictions that bear on the school uniform decision in public schools? Do uniform policies lead to less school violence? Do they impose an economic hardship, outweighing the advantages, on low-income families? The…

Secretary of Education Duncan (2010) lamented the state of U.S. education in 2010 after the release of the results from the 2009 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). He wrote: "Unfortunately, the 2009 PISA results show that American students are poorly prepared to compete in today's knowledge economy. President Obama…

The use of assessments in public schools in the United States to link student test scores to school performance has arguably transformed assessments into accountability tools. Dennis S. Rosemartin, a former elementary classroom teacher, is currently a PhD candidate at the University of Arizona. His area of specialization is teacher preparation and…

In this article the authors reason that current reform efforts in education--such as those fueled by Race to the Top (www2.ed.gov/programs/racetothetop) or the Common Core Standards (www.commoncorestandards.org)--emphasize the need to improve teacher preparation programs in ways that ensure graduates are ready for the realities in today's…

Without a doubt, poverty has a negative influence on student achievement, especially when achievement is measured by state-mandated standardized tests. However, some bureaucrats, such as state commissioners of education and even state governors, continue to downplay the influence of poverty on student achievement. New Jersey's Governor Chris…

As an "international" honor society in education, Kappa Delta Pi (KDP) recognizes the importance of encouraging and promoting education internationally in the 21st century. The challenge shared by educators in many countries is to achieve higher levels of learning for all students. Committed educators around the globe are already working to…

The Center for Applied Special Technology, Inc. (CAST), an educational research organization, introduced Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in its earliest form nearly 25 years ago. According to Orkwis and McLane (1998), UDL is a tangible means by which educators implement the special education requirements and sustain the gains that were…

Even as the Internet and i-devices have changed so many parts of people's lives, educational testing has not changed substantially in decades. Though researchers and educators have for years raised ample concerns about existing tests, assessments have barely evolved. Further, despite years of expanded testing and greater school accountability,…

The United States Department of Education (USED) granted 11 states waivers (eight full waivers and three conditional waivers) to provide what the USED termed "flexibility" from meeting some of the requirements in the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Much of the flexibility relieves schools from the Adequate Yearly Progress mandate that requires…

In today's ethnically and linguistically diverse classrooms, teachers need a notion of "relevant" that allows students from vastly different backgrounds to make personal purposeful connections with their academic work. To make instruction relevant, the author suggests that it has to be meaningful and engaging to a broad range of students.…

Teachers today are expected to meet the diverse needs of all of their students and know an array of instructional methods, which requires continual professional development (Darling-Hammond 1998). Darling-Hammond (1998, 7) stated that the "strongest predictor of student achievement is the percentage of well-qualified teachers in a school,…

A widely held view is that good schools are essential to a nation's international economic success and that high test scores on international tests of academic skills and knowledge indicate how good a nation's schools are. The widespread belief that good schools are an important contributor to a nation's economic success in the world is supported…

Basically everything associated with maximizing student engagement, achievement, optimal learning environment, learning zone, and the like can be attributed to the work of Lev Vygotsky (1978). A Russian psychologist and social constructivist, Vygotsky (1896-1934) proposed a concept so fundamental to the theory of motivation that it undergirds…

The current test-driven accountability movement, codified in the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 ([NCLB] 2002), was a misguided idea that will have the effect not of improving the education of children and youth, but of indicting the public school system of the United States. To improve education in the United States, politicians, policy makers,…