Released in November 2004, the fifth annual edition of the Brown Center Report on American Education (as it does every year) analyzes the difficulty of items on the math portion of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), examines the content training of middle school math teachers, and evaluates the Blue Ribbon Schools Program. Some of the initial findings from the report are a bit...

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers provides this guide to instructional design, which educators can use to gauge their target audience and tailor their teaching methods appropriately. By applying the principles of design to the creation of a course, a better level of understanding between the instructor and students can be achieved. For each of the six design phases a concise...

A number of noteworthy items related to the landscape of higher education found their way into major newspapers this week, including the announcement that Harvard University's endowment reported a 21.1 percent gain on its investments for the fiscal year 2004. This was the best performing year for Harvard's university fund since 2000, although the school also announced that the projected returns...

The Scout Report hasn't wandered over to the NOVA Online: Education site for a number of years, and it has expanded greatly as of late. Visitors to the site will immediately notice the "Watch, Interact, Explore" section, which allows interested parties to access short video clips and interactive features culled from NOVA program webpages. The materials here are all tied to state educational...

"These commissioned papers address advances in measuring inflation and adjusting for it; the emergence of a new focus upon spending at the school level; new, private sources of funding for public education; and a review of the state of the art of assessing educational productivity." In addition to excellent summaries of the papers in this series, the Introduction and Overview in the Table of...

As a result of the kind donations of Andrew Carnegie in 1905, and chartered in 1906 by an Act of Congress, the aim of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is "to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold, and dignify the profession of the teacher and the cause of higher education." While it would seem that this is a rather indomitable set of tasks, the Carnegie...

Organized and researched by John Wirt, Susan Choy, Stephen Provasnik, Patrick Rooney, Anindita Sen, and Richard Tobin at the National Center for Education Statistics, this annual report (whose production and publication is required by federal law) offers a broad and thorough inquiry into the current state of education in the United States. Drawing a number of massive data sets, the 327-page report...

The Electronic Emissary is "a Web-based telementoring service and resource center" where K-12 teachers and students can locate mentors who are experts in various disciplines in order to assist in "curriculum-based electronic exchanges among the teachers, their students, and the mentors." Interactions take place through electronic mail, web forum, chat, and teleconferencing exchanges and typically...

The Multicultural Pavillion is part of EdChange, a website is founded and maintained by Paul C. Gorski, Ph.D., which provides "resources and dialogue for equity in education." This section on Ed Tech & Digital Divide offers online resources and articles on the digital divide and multicultural e-learning. Gorksi has also posted a 28-page report that combines various conference presentations,...

Plagiarism.org is an "online resource for educators concerned with the growing problem of Internet plagiarism." The organization provides information on online plagiarism and explains how Turnitin.com can be used by educators "to fight plagiarism and help bring academic integrity back into our schools." The technologies behind Turnitin.com, facts about Internet plagiarism, and the growth of...