This volume offers a critical examination of the Programme for International Students Assessment (PISA), focusing on its origins and implementation, relationship to other international large-scale assessments, and its impacts on educational policy and reform at national and cross-national levels. Using empirical data gathered from a research…

New Leaders is a nonprofit organization with a mission to ensure high academic achievement for all students by developing outstanding school leaders to serve in urban schools. Its premise is that a combination of preparation and improved working conditions for principals, especially greater autonomy, would lead to improved student outcomes. Its…

New Leaders is dedicated to promoting student achievement by developing outstanding school leaders to serve in urban schools. RAND Corporation researchers conducted a formative and summative external evaluation of the New Leaders program, its theory of action, and its implementation from 2006 through 2013. This document presents technical…

The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss some of the problems presented by the use of computerized adaptive testing (CAT) in an instructional programs environment versus large scale testing applications, and to describe an actual implementation of CAT in an instructional programs setting. This particular application is in the…

Several of the major considerations involved in implementing a statewide testing program are discussed. The test results provide information which influences the educational enterprise in matters of curriculum, instruction, guidance, and accountability. Tests to be used in an assessment program must be developed by the administering agency when…

This paper describes and reports results of a program aimed at improving performance of all students, K-12, through a program of sequenced objectives monitored with criterion-referenced tests. Target curriculum areas were mathematics, reading, and language skills. Nationally normed achievement tests were administered in a base year and each year…

This evaluation documents the progress made by the Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts Magnet High School (Kansas City, Missouri) during its second year of implementing the arts theme. The evaluation covers four primary areas: demographic data, implementation, perceptions, and achievement. With the entering class of ninth graders during…

The Penn Manor CRT/Curriculum Articulation Project was designed to study the impact of the implementation of four specific interventions on the achievement of elementary school students in mathematics and language arts. The interventions were as follows: (1) classroom teachers were given individual curriculum skill objectives for their grade…