The central issue concerning faculty who consult with outside clients is the relationship of the faculty to the college or university that employs them. This relationship is evolving rapidly. The institutions first opposed faculty consulting, then tolerated it, next encouraged it, and then some even began to sponsor faculty consulting through organized programs of technical assistance to industry.…
Race, ethnicity, and gender are the most common characteristics that institutions observe in order to measure faculty diversity. Individuals from various minority or racial/ethnic groups (e.g., American Indian/Alaskan Native, Asian/Pacific Islander, African American, and Hispanic) comprise nearly 30 percent of the population but account for only 15 percent of the professoriate. While females const…
Although entrepreneurship is a term seldom associated with educational institutions, faculty entrepreneurial activities are not a recent development. Known as consulting, sponsored research, knowledge commercialization, academic capitalism, or moonlighting, the multifaceted phenomenon of faculty entrepreneurship has existed for some time on campuses. Nevertheless, little research has been undertak…
Part-time faculty are employed by colleges and universities to work on some basis that is less than a full-time contract. Some part-time faculty teach a single course, while others teach more than one course per academic term. Some part-timers have only a brief relationship with their employing institution and are used to fill a specific short-term instructional need, while others teach on a part-…
The scholarly performance of faculty is of interest to many groups, including the general public; university faculty, students, and administrators; makers of public policy; and higher-education scholars. A brief history of how the emphasis on research has emerged within American higher education can help one to understand the factors that have intensified pressures on faculty to publish. An apprec…
Traditional definitions of faculty work frame contemporary views of its assessment. Faculty work generally falls into three categories: (1) research, which is the discovery or creation of knowledge through systematic inquiry; (2) teaching, which is the transmission of knowledge through class instruction and other learning-focused activities; and (3) service, meaning service to others through appli…
The roles and responsibilities of college and university faculty members are closely tied to the central functions of higher education. One primary formal description of these functions was contained in the 1915 "Declaration of Principles" formulated by a representative committee of faculty members including members of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Accordi…
Since the 1960s the concept of shared governance has both blossomed and withered. Founded on the principals of western European worker-participation models, the practice of instituting faculty senates at universities and colleges throughout America was intended to alleviate the growing pains of the higher education system brought about by the influx of baby boomers (persons who were born between t…
The faculty service role includes a variety of activities: from providing the most advanced knowledge to serve global markets and priorities to performing the most humble committee work designed to assist in the routine functioning of campuses and community groups. Through faculty service activity, colleges and universities maintain shared governance, faculty promote disciplinary networks, and par…
A comprehensive model of evaluating teaching advocates the use of multiple sources of information to confirm decisions. Each source–students, self-reports, colleagues and chairs, and evidence of learning–has particular strengths and limitations. The weight of the accumulated results leads to the most valid personnel decisions. Using a mixture of evaluation sources can also lead to gr…
OVERVIEW Debbie Miller ADOPTION Ellen E. Pinderhughes ALCOHOL, TOBACCO, AND OTHER DRUGS Nancy K. Young FOSTER CARE Charlie Ferguson Much research has been conducted on what children need to grow up healthy, ready to learn, and to succeed in school. Many aspects of a child's growth and development, family circumstance, and school success have been studied, analyzed, and reported on in an eff…
Family and consumer sciences education is a field of study that focuses on families and work–and on their interrelationships. Family and consumer sciences education tries to empower individuals and families to identify and create alternative solutions to significant everyday challenges and to take responsibility for the consequences of their actions in a diverse global society. These challe…
The goal of positive and productive family and community involvement is on every school improvement list, but few schools have implemented comprehensive programs of partnership. Research suggests that this goal is an important one to reach because families and communities contribute to children's learning, development, and school success at every grade level. Studies are accumulating that s…
OVERVIEW Jacquelyn McCroskey INCOME SUPPORT SERVICES FOR CHILDREN AND FAMILIES Susan E. Smith Most schools encourage parents to become involved in their children's education, and some may even require parent participation in school activities. Most teachers and educational administrators, however, realize that parents who are working several jobs to make ends meet or struggling with complic…
Professor of mathematics education at Ohio State University, Harold P. Fawcett was best known for his work on pedagogy in geometry, particularly the teaching of reasoning and proof. Fawcett was born in Upper Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. In 1914 he received an A.B. from Mount Allison University and obtained a high school teaching position in a New England village. After World War I service wit…
HISTORY Elizabeth H. DeBray SUMMARY BY AGENCY Jason L. Walton The roots of federal participation in education lie deep in American history, beginning in the days of the Confederation. When it became clear in 1777 that the soldiers of the Continental Army lacked necessary competence in mathematics and military regimen, instruction was provided in these areas. Soon thereafter it became evident that …
The federal government's role in supporting research and development (R&D) in the United States has grown from a very minor one for much of the nation's history to one that was dominant during much of the twentieth century, and finally to one that at the beginning of the twenty-first century is still significant and essential but has been eclipsed in scale by industry-supporte…
The federal government plays a critical role in providing financial support for higher education. In fiscal year 1996 approximately $40 billion, or one-fifth of the total revenue received by degree-granting institutions of higher education, originated from the federal government (National Center for Education Statistics). These funds generally are provided in two forms: through direct support to c…
The Federal Interagency Committee on Education (FICE) is mandated to ensure "effective coordination of Federal education programs." It was first established by Executive Order 11185, issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson on October 16, 1964, and subsequently amended by Executive Order 11260 (1965) and by Executive Order 11761, issued by President Richard M. Nixon in 1974. FICE was in…
The U.S. federal government operates, financially supports, or has chartered a number of schools and colleges to meet a variety of specific educational needs thought to be best addressed at the national level. Traditionally, elementary and secondary schools in the United States are primarily the responsibility of local school districts. Two-and four-year institutions of higher education are suppor…
OVERVIEW Scott L. Thomas COMMUNITY AND JUNIOR COLLEGES Richard L. Alfred While many college-bound students and their families view higher education as a means to professional success and economic security, this end belies the myriad of contributions that America's colleges and universities make to the broader society. Although such social benefits often defy precise measurement they nonethe…
HISTORY Jason L. Walton CAPITAL OUTLAY IN LOCAL SCHOOL SYSTEMS John G. Augenblick Anne K. Barkis Justin R. Silverstein STATE SUPPORT Lawrence O. Picus School finance history is characterized by varying degrees of local, state, and federal support. Throughout history, local support of schools has suffered from glaringly inequitable tax structures resulting in wide variations in funding. State inter…
Author of the monumental survey Medical Education in the United States and Canada (1910), Abraham Flexner contributed to a period of reform in American medical education that hastened the closing of commercial medical schools and strengthened university-affiliated institutions adopting scientific approaches. A Louisville, Kentucky, native who earned his A.B. degree at Johns Hopkins University, Fle…
Foreign language education in the United States at the beginning of the twenty-first century is energized by some of the most dramatic developments in its modern history. Proficiency movement and standards initiatives have changed the focus of language instruction and assessment. Implications of emerging brain research have fueled renewed interest in early and intensive language learning for child…
Paulo Reglus Neves Freire was a Brazilian educator whose revolutionary pedagogical theory influenced educational and social movements throughout the world and whose philosophical writings influenced academic disciplines that include theology, sociology, anthropology, applied linguistics, pedagogy, and cultural studies. He was born to a middle-class family in Recife, in the state of Pernambuco in t…
The German educator Friedrich Froebel is significant for developing an Idealist philosophy of early childhood education and establishing the kindergarten, a school for four-and five-year-old children that is found worldwide. Friedrich Wilhelm August Froebel was the youngest of five sons of Johann Jacob Froebel, a Lutheran pastor at Oberweissbach in the German principality of Schwarzburg-Rudolfstad…
According to David Tyack, writing in 1992, there is a long history in the United States of providing remediation services to children in a school setting. Early programs attempted to provide health and social services in the school setting. The intent of these early efforts was to assist immigrant children in adjusting to their new culture. Locating these services in the school changed the focus f…
Future faculty preparation programs provide a smooth transition between graduate school and faculty positions by preparing graduate students to meet the demands and expectations they will face as faculty members in U.S. colleges and universities. By examining the multiple roles and responsibilities that faculty hold–including research, teaching, and service–these programs extend beyo…
On June 22, 1944, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed into law the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, also known as the G.I. Bill of Rights. The purpose of the act was to help the nation reabsorb millions of veterans returning from overseas who had been fighting in World War II. During the decades since its enactment, the law and its amendments have made possible the investment …
The Gary, Indiana, public schools, founded in 1906, were developed by Superintendent William A. Wirt from 1907 to 1938 and quickly expanded into an illustrious example of Progressive education through the 1920s. Born on a farm in eastern Indiana in 1874, Wirt attended nearby Bluffton High School, graduated from DePauw University, and returned to Bluffton as school superintendent in 1899. His schoo…
Gay and lesbian studies are academic programs dedicated to the study of historical, cultural, social, and political issues of vital concern to lesbian, gay, and, increasingly, bisexual and transgendered individuals. The focus of such programs is on lesbian and gay lives and social institutions, as well as about homophobia and oppression related to sexual orientation. Gay and lesbians studies progr…
Many benefits accrue to investments in women's schooling, which range from social payoffs (such as lower fertility rates, improved children and women's health, greater life expectancy for women and men, and higher schooling attainment by new generations) to individual improvements (such as older age at marriage, reduced teen pregnancy, greater participation and productivity into the …
As American higher education moved from institutions that promoted learning for learning's sake to institutions that prepare individuals for work and careers, new approaches in college and university curriculum development became necessary. One significant evolution was the movement away from the classical, European model of liberal education to the development of a narrower, more selective…
The General Educational Development Test (GED) is a battery of tests designed to measure the educational level of people who did not formally complete high school. Candidates who successfully pass the five subject area tests are awarded a high school equivalency certificate recognized by state education departments. The American Council on Education (ACE) offers the GED and preparation guidance ac…
Geography, like history, is not defined by the uniqueness of its content; rather, both gain their distinction by the way in which they organize and analyze the data they collect regarding particular aspects of the human experience. History compares and contrasts information within the framework of chronology, while geography organizes its information within the context of the spatial environment. …
The term gifted and talented is often used in tandem to describe both a wide range of human exceptional performance, and people who display such high levels of competence in culturally valued domains or socially useful forms of expression. For children to be identified as gifted and talented, they need to demonstrate outstanding potential or promise rather than mature, expert performance. Thus dif…
In popular discourse, globalization is often synonymous with internationalization, referring to the growing interconnectedness and interdependence of people and institutions throughout the world. Although these terms have elements in common, they have taken on technical meanings that distinguish them from each other and from common usage. Internationalization is the less theorized term. Globalizat…
Director of research at the New Jersey Home for the Education and Care of Feeble-Minded Children in Vineland, Henry H. Goddard used and elaborated Alfred Binet's intelligence tests for use with American students. Goddard made a number of important contributions in special education, including his guiding role in the establishment of the first state law mandating special education services. …
Social and educational critic Paul Goodman was referred to by his biographer, Taylor Stoehr, as a "prophet." Revered by the youth movement in the 1960s, his ideas on education and youth were extremely appealing to many people on the political left. Goodman was born in New York, and raised amid the urban, Jewish intellectual community. He graduated from City College of New York in 193…
A nationally acclaimed school superintendent, Willard E. Goslin became a symbol of the end of educational progressivism, when he was forced to resign from the Pasadena, California, schools in November 1950. Goslin's ouster was a victory for citizens' groups that deemed his support of racial understanding, outdoor education, child guidance, and mental health as evidence of subversive,…
There is no single or generally accepted definition of governance, as it has been described as structures, legal relationships, authority patterns, rights and responsibilities, and decision-making patterns. One commonly given definition of governance is the way that issues affecting the entire institution, or one or more components thereof, are decided. It includes the structure and processes, bot…
Since about 1990 the assumption that the public sector should be responsible for all aspects of education has been increasingly questioned, in both developed and developing countries, for four main reasons. First, there have been doubts about the effectiveness and efficiency of public education. Second, there are doubts about the equity and accountability of public education, which particularly af…
SCHOOL Thomas R. Guskey HIGHER EDUCATION Howard R. Pollio Few issues have created more controversy among educators than those associated with grading and reporting student learning. Despite the many debates and multitudes of studies, however, prescriptions for best practice remain elusive. Although teachers generally try to develop grading policies that are honest and fair, strong evidence shows t…
Every year, thousands of students prepare for, and take, the Graduate Record Examination (GRE)–a standardized test that measures the aptitude of promising graduate students. In 1998, 364,554 potential graduate students, a number that includes one-third of all bachelor degree recipients, took the GRE, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Why does this test draw thousand…
Graduate and professional education is the continuation of academic study beyond the baccalaureate degree. Graduate education is distinguished from professional education in that the graduate student is preparing for a career in academia, the government, or other professions. Those continuing in professional education are in degree programs that will prepare them for work in law, medicine, or othe…
Graduate programs in the field of education are offered in U.S. colleges and universities at the master's, specialist, and doctoral levels. Like graduate programs in other disciplines and fields of study, graduate programs in education require baccalaureate degrees as a prerequisite. Degrees are typically awarded after students complete specified program requirements. From 1997 to 1998 educ…
William S. Gray, as author of the popular "Dick and Jane" series, arguably helped to define the field of reading education in the United States. Gray received a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1913, a master's degree from Teachers College, Columbia University, in 1914, and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1916. He was associated with the Uni…
Classrooms are social settings; teaching and learning occur through social interaction between teachers and students. As teaching and learning take place, they are complicated processes and are affected by peer-group relationships. The interactions and relationships between teachers and students, and among students, as they work side by side, constitute the group processes of the classroom. Group …
School counselors help to make learning a positive experience for every student. They are sensitive to individual differences. They know that a classroom environment that is good for one child is not necessarily good for another. Counselors facilitate communication among teachers, parents, administrators, and students to adapt the school's environment in the best interests of each individua…
Progressive educator Kurt Hahn established a system of international schools and programs that even after his death are alive and expanding. Hahn, a German of Jewish origin who subsequently became a Christian and naturalized English citizen, was born in Berlin as son of a wealthy industrialist. After graduation from the Royal Wilhelm gymnasium in Berlin (1904), he studied philosophy and the classi…
Margaret Angela Haley was the formative leader of America's first teacher union. In her forty years of leadership with the Chicago Teachers Federation, Haley advocated teachers' right to be involved in school decision-making, the promotion of Progressive educational practice, and the expansion of protective legislation for teachers. Margaret Haley was born in Joliet, Illinois, of wor…
The "father of adolescence," G. Stanley Hall is best known for his prodigious scholarship that shaped adolescent themes in psychology, education, and popular culture. Granville Stanley Hall was born in a small farming village in western Massachusetts, and his upbringing was modest, conservative, and puritan. He began his scholarly work in theology, but traveled to Germany to study ph…
Since the advent of the typewriter, penmanship has been increasingly devalued, even ignored, in the curriculum. Despite the ubiquity of computers, handwriting is still an important means of note taking and communication. Bad handwriting, it has been shown, leads to lower grades in school. Bad handwriting skills may cause the writer physical pain and mental distress. An inappropriate grip on the wr…
An educator initially trained in elementary education, Paul R. Hanna gained his greatest fame in both social studies and international education. Hanna was born in Sioux City, Iowa, his father a Methodist minister and his mother the daughter of Swiss immigrants. He entered Hamline College (now Hamline University), and upon graduation in 1924 he enrolled at Teachers College, Columbia, from which he…
The first president of the University of Chicago, William Rainey Harper was a leading figure in the development of the modern university in the United States. He was born in New Concord, Ohio, and was considered an academic prodigy, enrolling at age ten as a freshman at Muskingum College where he studied language and music. After graduation at age fourteen, he went to Yale and earned a Ph.D. in Ph…
An important educational philosopher and statesman of the late nineteenth century, William Torrey Harris served as the chief administrator of the St. Louis Public Schools from 1868 to 1880 and as the United States Commissioner of Education from 1889 to 1906. Beginning his career in 1857 as an elementary school teacher in the St. Louis public school system, Harris progressed through the ranks, beco…
Harvard University, the oldest educational institution in the United States, was founded sixteen years after the arrival of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, Massachusetts. Established by the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1636 and later chartered in 1650 in what is now the oldest corporation in the Western Hemisphere, Harvard University was named for its first benefactor, John Harvard of Charlestown, Massac…
Best known for his conceptualization of human development as mastery of a series of age-related cultural tasks, Robert J. Havighurst was an avid researcher, a prolific writer, and a civil rights activist. As a researcher, he conducted cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of the social, emotional, and moral development of children and adolescents in various American subcultures (including Nativ…
The United States has the most sophisticated and advanced medical care in the world, attracting people from around the globe for treatment of complex and difficult health conditions. The extent to which individuals living in this country benefit from this care, however, depends to a great degree on whether they have health insurance. Studies consistently show that persons without health insurance …
The twentieth century saw extraordinary and dramatic improvements in human health. Life expectancy more than doubled, with most of the increase within the century's second fifty years. Improved income, higher levels of education, more and better food, better sanitation, public sewage systems, and new knowledge underpin these gains. This entry focuses on the effect of male and female educati…
School health programs are said to be one of the most efficient strategies that a nation might use to prevent major health and social problems. Next to the family, schools are the major institution for providing the instruction and experiences that prepare young people for their roles as healthy, productive adults. Schools can–and invariably do–play a powerful role in influencing stu…
SCHOOL Kerry Redican Charles Baffi COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES Molly Black Duesterhaus Provision of public school health services in the United States has been sporadic, reflecting the tenor of the times, and influenced by pressure groups, vested interests, and resistance to change by those in administrative positions. The initial justification for provision of school-based health services was prima…
SCHOOL PROGRAMS Susan Dalebout TEACHING METHODS Elizabeth A. Martinez Daniel P. Hallahan Hearing loss occurs along a broad continuum ranging in degree from slight to profound. Individuals with severe and profound hearing loss generally are characterized as deaf, whereas individuals with lesser degrees of impairment, including those with unilateral hearing loss (i.e., involving only one ear), are c…
German philosopher Johann Friedrich Herbart is the founder of the pedagogical theory that bears his name, which eventually laid the groundwork for teacher education as a university enterprise in the United States and elsewhere. Herbart was born in Oldenburg, Germany, the only child of a gifted and strong-willed mother and a father whose attention was devoted to his legal practice. Herbart was tuto…
Universities are not ivory towers and never have been. They are subject to pressures and influences from external social forces of many kinds. This is not surprising, in light of the importance of universities to society, as well as the fact that institutions of higher education obtain their funds from external sources such as the government, students and their families, and donors. In the twenty-…
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT John R. Thelin Jason R. Edwards Eric Moyen SYSTEM Joseph B. Berger Maria Vita Calkins At the start of the twenty-first century, higher education in the United States stands as a formidable enterprise. As an established "knowledge industry" it represents about 3 percent of the gross national product. Virtually every governor and legislature across the nation evo…
Higher education has developed in numerous ways since the end of World War II. Throughout the world, issues such as autonomy and accountability, the impact of technology, the growing role of markets and the privatization of higher education, the role of research and teaching, various efforts toward curriculum reform, and the massive expansion that has characterized higher education systems in most…
Hispanics constitute the fastest-growing minority population in the United States. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Hispanics represented 12.5 percent of the national population of 281 million in 2000. This is also a fairly young population: 36 percent of Hispanics are under eighteen years of age, and only 5 percent are age sixty-five or older. Moreover, only slightly more than half of all His…
Historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are institutions that were established prior to 1964 with the mission to educate black Americans. Perhaps one of the greatest struggles faced by blacks in the United States has been the struggle to be educated. This struggle has been guided by the philosophies of black scholars who believed that without struggle there was no progress; black revo…
LEARNING Bruce A. Van Sledright TEACHING OF Bruce A. Van Sledright The learning of history is a complex undertaking. Cognitive research done since 1980, much of it in Great Britain and North America, has indicated that it is more difficult to learn and understand history than previously thought. Before the 1980s it was generally assumed that a gradual process of committing historical narratives&#x…
John Caldwell Holt was a teacher, educational critic, and early spokesperson for the home-schooling movement. Born in Boston, Massachusetts, the son of well-to-do parents, he was formally educated in private schools in the United States and abroad. He described himself as a "good student in supposedly the best schools." At Yale University, Holt studied to be an industrial engineer, b…
The term home schooling refers to the practice of parents educating a child at home, rather than in a conventional public or private school setting. These children would otherwise be enrolled in elementary or secondary school. The parent responsible for home schooling generally does not work and is rarely a trained teaching professional. Primary concerns for most home schoolers are strengthening f…
Homework is defined as tasks assigned to students by school teachers that are intended to be carried out during nonschool hours. This definition excludes in-school guided study (although homework is often worked on during school), home-study courses, and extracurricular activities such as sports teams and clubs. The most common purpose of homework is to have students practice material already pres…
ALPHA CHI Dennis M. Organ ALPHA MU GAMMA Franklin I. Triplett ALPHA OMEGA ALPHA Edward D. Harris Jr. ASSOCIATION FOR WOMEN IN COMMUNICATIONS Mary Kay Switzer ASSOCIATION OF COLLEGE HONOR SOCIETIES John W. Warren BETA PHI MU Judith J. Culligan DELTA KAPPA GAMMA SOCIETY Carolyn Guss DELTA SIGMA RHO–TAU KAPPA ALPHA Herold T. Ross KAPPA DELTA PI Michael P. Wolfe KAPPA OMICRON NU Dorothy I. Mits…
Honors programs are housed in many different types of institutions of higher education. In general, honors education consists of "the total means by which a college or university seeks to meet the educational needs of its ablest and most highly motivated students" (Austin, p. 5). The goals of honors programs usually include identifying and selecting highly able students; challenging …
Noted Progressive education theorist, consultant, and curriculum leader, L. Thomas Hopkins completed his major writings while a professor and laboratory school director at Teachers College, Columbia University. Born in Truro, Massachusetts, Hopkins received his bachelor's and master's degrees from Tufts University in 1910 and 1911, respectively. Hopkins claimed that the central ideas…
Activist and founder of the Highlander Folk School, Myles Falls Horton was born in a log cabin near Savannah, Tennessee, on July 9, 1905. His parents, Elsie Falls Horton and Perry Horton, had both been school teachers before Horton's birth, but had lost their jobs when the requirements for teachers were increased to include one year of high school, which neither had. After that, his parents…
In 1974, after a long history of harmful research studies conducted on unwilling human subjects (such as the Tuskegee Syphilis Study initiated in the 1930s and a series of studies conducted in the 1960s at the Willowbrook State School, a New York institution for "mentally defective" children), the U.S. Congress established the National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects …
Madeline Cheek Hunter, professor of educational administration and teacher education, was the creator of the Instructional Theory Into Practice (ITIP) teaching model, an inservice/staff development program widely used during the 1970s and 1980s. Hunter entered the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), at the age of sixteen and, over the course of her career, earned four degrees in psycholo…
A major voice for general education in American higher education, Robert Maynard Hutchins wrote, spoke about, and influenced public policy during his almost fifty years as teacher, educator, and administrator. Known in the educational world for his enthusiasm and dedication to liberal education with an emphasis on the Great Books and great ideas, he was also, during various times in his career, an…