Issues in K-12 Education is now available through CourseSmart. Are Students Being Prepared for the Technological Age? Can AP and IB Programs Raise U.S. High-School Achievement? Do Teachers Assign Too Much Homework? These are just a few of the provocative questions posed in Issues in K-12 Education. This engaging reader allows students to see an issue from all sides and to think critically about topics that matter to them. Classroom discussion will never be dull again! About CQ Researcher Readers In the tradition of nonpartisanship and current analysis that is the hallmark of CQ Press, CQ Researcher readers investigate important and controversial policy issues. Offer your students the balanced reporting, complete overviews, and engaging writing that CQ Researcher has consistently provided for more than 80 years. Each article gives substantial background and analysis of a particular issue as well as useful pedagogical features to inspire critical thinking and to help students grasp and review key material: A pro/con box that examines two competing sides of a single question A detailed chronology of key dates and events An annotated bibliography that includes Web resources An outlook section that addresses possible regulation and initiatives from Capitol Hill and the White House over the next 5 to 10 years Photos, charts, graphs, and maps

The goal of this volume of Research in Science Education is to examine the relationship between science education policy and practice and the special role that science education researchers play in influencing policy. It has been suggested that the science education research community is isolated from the political process, pays little attention to policy matters, and has little influence on policy. But to influence policy, it is important to understand how policy is made and how it is implemented. This volume sheds light on the intersection between policy and practice through both theoretical discussions and practical examples. This book was written primarily about science education policy development in the context of the highly decentralized educational system of the United States. But, because policy development is fundamentally a social activity involving knowledge, values, and personal and community interests, there are similarities in how education policy gets enacted and implemented around the world. This volume is meant to be useful to science education researchers and to practitioners such as teachers and administrators because it provides information about which aspects of the science education enterprise are affected by state, local, and national policies. It also provides helpful information for researchers and practitioners who wonder how they might influence policy. In particular, it points out how the values of people who are affected by policy initiatives are critical to the implementation of those policies.

Contains directories of federal agencies that promote mathematics and science education at elementary and secondary levels; organized in sections by agency name, national program name, and state highlights by region.