What\u27s Wrong With American Secondary Schools: Can State and Federal Governments Fix it?

[Excerpt] The poor performance of American students is sometimes blamed on the nation\u27s diversity . Many affluent parents apparently believe that their children are doing acceptably by international standards. This is not the case. In Stevenson, Lee and Stigler\u27s (1986) study of 5th grade math achievement, the best of the 20 classrooms sampled in Minneapolis was outstripped by every single classroom studied in Sendai, Japan and by 19 of the 20 classrooms studied in Taipeh, Taiwan. The nation\u27s top high school students rank far behind much less elite samples of students in other countries. In mathematics the gap between Japanese and Finnish high school seniors and their white American counterparts is about twice the size of the two to three grade level equivalent gap between blacks and whites in the US (NAEP 1988b; IAEEA 1987). The learning deficit is pervasive

Music and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Possible Effects on the Autistic Mind

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a known neurological disorder that directly affects an individual\u27s ability to communicate and interact with others; ASD is diagnosed within the first three years of life. One of the most common forms of therapy or interventions used is music. Music incorporation can change in a format such as learning a specific instrument, singing, or simply dancing to promote physical activity to help brain stimulation and process the overall musical experience. Music has been a commonly used therapy or intervention for children diagnosed with ASD dating back to the mid-1940s. Those diagnosed with ASD have difficulty with social interactions, communication, and emotional expression, all of which occur naturally in the music learning and music-making process. One of the more popular music therapy forms is improvisational music therapy, specifically relating to ASD. By allowing those with ASD a more flexible approach to music learning, the students can exercise social, communicative, and problem-solving skills at a pace set by the instructor or therapist for the students\u27 benefit. Utilizing elements of Orff and Kodály methods of music learning will allow students with ASD an opportunity to flourish

Graduate Catalog, 2005-2006

https://scholar.valpo.edu/gradcatalogs/1032/thumbnail.jp

Describing the Ball: Improve Teaching by Using Rubrics - Explicit Grading Criteria

Assessment is crucial to effective teaching and learning. Carnegie\u27s Educating Lawyers and Roy Stuckey\u27s Best Practices for Legal Education emphasize the importance of assessment. This article explains how detailed, written grading criteria describing what students should learn and how they will be evaluated should be a central part of law teachers\u27 assessment plans. The article details how rubrics can improve law student learning, and contains both detailed, step-by-step directions on creating rubrics and examples of rubrics from many different law school courses