Education & Pedagogy

"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) Secretary Spellings Defends Bush Budget on Capitol Hill: Congress Expresses Concern over Education Cuts, Proposal to Extend NCLB to High Schools; (2) Under Reconstruction: Spellings Proposes Re-Organization of the U.S. Department of Education; (3) "Not a Moment to Lose": Denver Commission on Secondary School Reform Stresses "Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships" as the Keys to Successful High Schools; and (4) Call for Presenters: Alliance Seeks Presentations on Literacy Interventions for Continuing Breakfast Series.

State leaders in business, labor, public policy, education and community development are invited to come together around multiple pathways and build a new agenda for high school improvement in California. This group can become a powerful force for transforming high school education by examining and forming consensus around the multiple pathways approach. In addition, this group can contribute to further definition of pathways guiding principles, core components, and policy implications. Each of these topics is presented in this paper, along with evidence to date pointing to the potential for pathways to change California high school education for the better.

"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) Bill Gates Testifies Before Senate Committee: Microsoft Chairman Pushes for High School Reform, Says Every Child Should Graduate from High School Prepared for College, Career, and Life; (2) Secretary Spellings Defends FY 2008 Education Budget: Secretary Receives Criticism for Lack of Funding; (3) No Committee Left Behind: House and Senate Education Committees Hold Joint Hearing on NCLB Reauthorization; and (4) State of the States Coverage Continues: Alabama Governor Promotes Pay-for-Performance Plan for Teachers, Texas Governor Defends Similar Program.

Relatively little policy activity has focused on the key role of counselors in providing the guidance students need to make informed decisions about their post-high school options. This issue of "Progress of Education Reform" takes a closer look at research related to: (1) The variation in access of college counseling across schools and the impact of schools, districts, postsecondary institutions and states on the availability and type of college counseling; (2) The types of information traditionally underserved students need to prepare for postsecondary education; and (3) The varying types of guidance students receive based on their academic pathway or ethnic background. (Contains 2 endnotes.)

"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) ESEA [Elementary and Secondary Education Act], Right Away!: Voters Want Federal Action on High School Reform, According to New National Poll; (2) Striking a Balance: House Appropriations Subcommittee Falls Short of President Obama's Education Funding Goal; (3) "The State of State Standards--and the Common Core": Common Core State Standards Are Stronger than Current Standards in Three Quarters of States, New Report Finds; and (4) "Learning from Leadership": New Report Finds Effective School Leadership Is Strongly Connected to Student Achievement.

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) follows education budgets and legislation during regular and special legislative sessions. Current actions are found in Legislative Reports that are released on a timely basis during the months that SREB state legislatures are in session, usually from January through July. These reports follow education and budget issues from governors' proposals through final legislative actions in each of the 16 SREB states. The reports include bill numbers and legislative Web site addresses, a feature that allows state legislators and staff to access current legislation quickly. This report presents a summary of final legislative actions in the 16 SREB states based on the 2010 SREB Legislative Reports. The 16 SREB states covered herein include Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The Czech system of education has been through several years of relatively intensive transformation efforts reflecting the international processes of transformation of higher education the Czech Republic joined. The most important external stimulus directing the transformation process is the so-called Bologna process. These complex and multifaceted processes affect all important areas of university education. Not everything is smooth and easy; achievements are accompanied by controversial issues and challenges. This paper will deal with some areas of transformation of Czech university education--with respect to relation to the Bologna process. The paper provides a general survey of especially restructuring, the credit system, permeability, degree recognition, lifelong learning, the European dimension, mobility, quality and its assessment, and research and discusses teacher education in more detail. It is based on documents characterizing Czech higher education and its transformation as well as the author's empirical observations--the author of this text has worked at a Czech university since 1993 without interruption. (Contains 20 footnotes.)

To help achieve President Obama's stated goal of ensuring that every student has meaningful opportunities to choose from upon graduating from high school, the administration has designed a blueprint for a reenvisioned federal role in education through the reauthorization of the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act" ("ESEA"). This new vision considers that, while all states have developed and implemented standards as required under the current "ESEA", in many cases these standards do not reflect the knowledge and skills needed for success after high school, either in further education or a job. This paper describes how the proposed "ESEA" will help effect dramatic change in low-performing schools. [For the related report, "A Blueprint for Reform. The Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act", see ED508795.]

This report, issued by the Connecticut Department of Higher Education, reports on trends in higher education for the year 2011. Six goals are presented, each with at least two indicators. Each indicator is broken down into the following subsections: About This Indicator; Highlights; and In the Future. Most indicators also include statistical tables and figures providing supplemental data. The six goals include: (1) Student Learning; (2) Learning in K-12; (3) Access and Affordability; (4) Economic Development; (5) Responsiveness to Societal Needs; and (6) Resource Efficiency. A section listing Connecticut peer institutions concludes the report.

The shortage of special education teachers is critical. One means used to increase the supply of available teachers is to issue an emergency license to teachers not fully certified in special education. This is a phenomenological study of four general education teachers practicing special education using an emergency license. Their experience is characterized around four themes--diminished control over their lives, teaching, but on the "outside," supportive relationships, and becoming "new" and or renewed. Universal themes of lived space, lived time, and lived human relationships provide the lens through which their experiences are interpreted. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The Tomas Rivera Lecture Series has a rich history of showcasing prominent lecturers, dating back to 1985. This year's lecture, the 26th in the series, features two influential and well-respected leaders in higher education, Chancellors Charles B. Reed and Jack Scott. Each brings a different perspective about the issues confronting higher education, while providing an overview of the possible solutions that could resolve the unique challenges the nation faces in this area. In their lectures, these two leaders addressed an array of subjects, from access and recruitment to retention and graduation of underrepresented students. They also discussed approaches for improving Latino higher education in general and focused on higher education issues that affect California specifically. This publication reproduces Charles B. Reed's and Jack Scott's lectures.

A large and persistent association between education and health has been well-documented in many countries and time periods and for a wide variety of health measures. In their paper, "Education and Health: Evaluating Theories and Evidence," presented at the National Poverty Center conference "The Health Effects of Non-Health Policy," David M. Cutler and Adriana Lleras-Muney review literature and conduct statistical analyses on the relationship between education and health. They find a clear association between education and health that cannot be fully explained by income, the labor market, or family background indicators. The authors note that the relationship between health and education is a complicated one, with a range of potential mechanisms shaping the connection between education and health. (Contains 2 figures and 1 endnote.)

Throughout his life, Frederick Douglass struggled to be something extraordinary. He rose from a life in slavery to become the most prominent African-American of his day and a leading figure in the abolitionist movement. Lost in the discussion of his life are the adult education roles that he played throughout his life and career. Beginning while he was still a slave and extending until his death, he worked to educate adults in order to transform individual lives and society as a whole. Douglass was primarily engaged in adult education in the fields of religious adult education, social movements, popular education, and political activism. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This paper presents the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's revised State Plan extension, which is effective until June 30, 2011. The eligible agency assures that this plan, which serves as an agreement between State and Federal Governments under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, will be administered in accordance with applicable Federal laws and regulations. Appendices include: (1) Invitation for Bid (IFB) and Grant Applications; (2) Proposed Fiscal Year 2011 Adult Education and Literacy Performance Measures and Benchmarks; (3) Local AEL Program Director's Guide; (4) Copy of letter to Governor; (5) Statistics for the target populations for each school district in Missouri are available on the Department's Web site at: http://www.dese.mo.gov/schooldata; and (6) Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and AEL Section Organizational Charts.

Mathematics anxiety in pre-service primary teachers is an important issue in teacher education. This leads to the question of how pre-service primary teachers with mathematics anxiety perceive their mathematical identities. The paper explores the potential to develop a research-based model to identify the process whereby pre-service primary teachers with mathematics anxiety could develop more positive identities as learners and potential teachers of mathematics. It indicates emerging themes from previous research using subsequent preliminary data analysis and argues that a grounded theory approach to building a theoretical model for this process would make a valuable contribution to teacher education. [For the complete proceedings, "Shaping the Future of Mathematics Education. Proceedings of the Annual Conference of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia (33rd, Freemantle, Western Australia, Australia, July 3-7, 2010)," see ED520764.]