An executive department of the government that conducts research, maintains service activities and administers regulatory laws in the broad field of agriculture.

A four-year, cooperative, vocational education program that begins in the junior year of high school and continues through the senior year of high school and two years at an associated community college.

A method of instruction commonly used in English universities, where teachers meet individually with students for intensive discussions about a topic based on materials the student has been assigned to study.

A teacher, usually private, who instructs students individually or in small groups.

Historically, one of the most important institutions of African-American education in the United States.

American clergyman, educator and cofounder of the famed “YALE BAND,” which was instrumental in bringing public education and colleges to the West. Born in Massachusetts, he attended and was ordained at Yale in 1830.

A school, college or privately sponsored program whereby tuition costs for elementary, secondary or higher education may be paid in monthly, interest-free installments instead of a large lump sum at the beginning of the semester or academic year.

The cost of formal instruction at an educational institution. Free at public elementary and secondary schools, some tuition is generally imposed on students at all colleges, public or private.

A group of state laws that give students the right to see the actual results and scoring methods of standardized college and graduate school admission tests.

Thirtythird president of the United States, whose dedication to education helped convert American colleges and universities into instruments of universal education for the entire American people.

One of the most common forms of objective testing, with questions stated as declarative sentences that demand a simple student response of “correct” or “incorrect.”

Unexcused absence from elementary or secondary school, in violation of state education laws.

A program originally sponsored by the Department of Defense to encourage qualified retiring members of the armed services to serve as teachers or aides in low-income school districts suffering shortages of qualified personnel.

The two categories of the seven liberal arts, as taught in the first European universities during the Middle Ages. 

A short-lived effort by the U.S.

One-third of an academic year.

An organizational structure that links the curriculum of the last two years of high school with two or more years of study at an affiliated institution of higher education. A phrase coined in the 1980s by Ernest L.

Ineducation, a term borrowed from linguisticsand applied to a “bottom-up” approach tounderstanding and teaching grammar by usingthe deep structure of a sentence—a simplenoun and simple verb—as a base, or foundation,on which a wide variety of surface structuresmay be constructed.

College students who begin their postsecondary school higher education studies at one institution before enrolling at one or more subsequent institutions to obtain their bachelor’s degrees.

An official, printed record of astudent’s academic grades and school or collegeperformance, usually carrying an explanationof the school’s grading system and a raised sealor other certification of authenticity.

In American education, an early 19th-century literary and philosophical movement in New England that rejected Puritan values and the doctrine of original sin and extolled the beauties of the individual as an element of the natural world. 

A system of grouping students in classes according to ability and curriculum. Introduced in Britain in the 1920s as “streaming,” tracking by ability became ubiquitous in U.S.

An all-encompassing approach to teaching the hearing-impaired, by using a combination of oral speech, lip reading, signing and finger spelling.

A system of reading instruction in which children learn the meanings of entire words by sight—by recognizing the distinctive shape and context of each word in a sentence.