A theory of learning to read based on a combined use of phonics, whole words and other experiential materials.

A method of instruction by which the teacher encourages a student to assess his or her own work, thus provoking independent thought and the development of reasoning and problem-solving skills.

A nationwide program to encourage the study of science in the United States by identifying the most scientifically talented high school students in the country each year and rewarding them with college scholarships totaling more than $200,000.

A theory that an as-yetunidentified guiding force directed the development of all living organisms, including humans.

A measure of an individual’s “general ability” compared to others of the same age.

A much-debated abstraction related to an individual’s ability to reason and learn.

A term with multiple meanings in education, but first used in the 1950s to connote the mixing of blacks and whites in schools in compliance with the landmark 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in BROWN V.

A term used by educational pioneer JOHN DEWEY to refer to a system of primary and secondary school instruction that interrelates as many different subjects as possible in the study of any particular topic— for example, interrelating geometry, physics, art, language development and art history in the study of the Egyptian pyramids in history class.

A noncommercial, school- or teacher-run, closed-circuit television network within a school or college, which instructors may use intermittently to transmit audiovisual materials to groups of students in one or more classrooms or auditoria.

An expanded school area that incorporates and integrates the library, audiovisual services, educationally oriented computer services and, in many instances, LEARNING LABORATORIES.

An evolutionary phase of some urban Protestant churches—especially in New York City—during the late 1880s, when parishioners retreated from their old neighborhoods as poor immigrants moved in.

A branch of the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION founded in 2004 to develop eight national educational research centers at various American universities with $10 million grants each.

A specialized two- or four-year institution of higher education.

Postgraduate education and training of professional teachers during their working years.

An increasingly popular method of teaching students to solve a problem by providing questions whose collective answers will inevitably lead them to its solution.

The inability to calculate or perform arithmetic functions with numbers— a form of ILLITERACY.

A Latin term meaning “in the place of the parents” and referring to the once-unquestioned legal prerogative of teachers to act in the classroom and in school with all the authority of parents.

A historically interesting but outdated, phonicsbased augmented alphabet with 45 letters and DIGRAPHS representing the sounds as well as letters of the English alphabet.

A 1977 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that spanking by school authorities did not violate the constitutional rights of students.

A relatively quick measure of a child’s reading ability and reading comprehension, as expressed by grade or age level.

The instruction of preschool children by trained teachers in a setting outside the home.

A broad-based and somewhat vague curriculum that combines elements of the “manual training” curriculum from 19th-century schools with elements of 20th-century VOCATIONAL EDUCATION and general studies.

A project that developed several WORLD OF WORK courses designed to introduce students to on-the-job realities of adult life.

A system of reasoning or logic that arrives at broad, general conclusions or laws on the basis of one or more specific observations.