An unofficial, informal term, of obscure origin, referring to a group of costly and selective private colleges in the northeastern United States with above-average academic standards.

A specially trained instructor who works in more than one school, providing special educational services to students and teachers.

A form of elementary and secondary school punishment whereby a student is isolated from peers, either in a separate area of the classroom or outside the classroom.

The world’s largest religion, with about 1.3 billion adherents, 97% of whom are in Asia and Africa.

A 1984 U.S.

The abbreviation and popularly used term for INTELLIGENCE QUOTIENT,

One of the most widely used batteries of achievement tests for elementary and middle school students.

The 29th state admitted to the Union, in 1846.

Formal extracurricular activities, such as competitive sports, conducted exclusively “within the walls” of a school or college for its own students.

A private, formal, face-to-face meeting of two people to exchange information. It is the formality of the interview that distinguishes it from conventional social intercourse.

A period of preprofessional, onthe- job training under the supervision of one or more experienced mentors.

A global collection of interconnected electronic commercial, government, academic and other communications networks (thus, the term “inter-net”), within which are linked tens of millions of individual computers around the world.

An ambitious international effort to improve the lot of children everywhere on the planet.

A large-scale affiliation of American and Canadian Protestant Sunday schools formed in the 1870s by evangelical ministers to unify the Sundayschool curriculum.

Once the largest manufacturer of farm machinery in the United States and a pioneer in company-operated educational programs for its employees.

A specialized secondary school diploma valid internationally as evidence of satisfactory completion of secondary school education.

An organization founded in 1959 to provide comparative assessments of schools and student achievement in member nations.

A rarely used term referring to traditional college degrees earned on campus by following a prescribed program of study and class attendance.

Educational administrative groups with varying degrees of authority to establish educational services that would otherwise be unavailable to local school districts.

A term usually synonymous with junior high school or middle school, and therefore embracing any of a combination of grades between elementary school and high school.

Any cooperative arrangement between two or more libraries whereby members of one library may automatically borrow publications from other libraries in the cooperating group.

A presidentially appointed group of 20 federal,

Questionnaires that attempt to determine the extent of an individual’s interest in a particular course of study, vocation or avocation.

An electronic replacement for overhead projectors and the once-ubiquitous chalkboards (blackboards) that covered the walls in classrooms across the nation.