Schools are learning organisations. They continuously strive to do better for the children and young people in their charge. In doing so, they try new things, seek to learn from those experiences, and work to adopt and embed the practices that work best. Implementation is a key aspect of what schools do to improve, and yet it is a domain of school…

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…

The book analyses and evaluates several key community college reform programs that emerged after the Recession of 2008 and as a result of major initiatives in California, New York, Tennessee, Florida, Connecticut and Wisconsin. Because of the economic downturn in the early 21st Century, an already eroding financial base for public higher education…

Providing an in-depth look at the processes, pitfalls, and successes that can emerge from major education reform efforts at the state level, this volume covers the full policy change cycle in the development and transformation of the Illinois principal preparation program. Offering perspectives from the major stakeholder groups involved in…

States, school districts, and schools across the country are increasingly implementing multi-tier systems of support (MTSS) to improve outcomes for all students. Kansas is no exception. The Kansas MTSS is designed to improve outcomes for all students by instituting system-level change across the classroom, school, district, and state. Such…

Implementation of multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) has grown rapidly in Kansas and is a key strategy for turning around low-performing schools in the state. MTSS is designed to improve outcomes for all students by instituting system-level change across the classroom, school, district, and state. Such systemic change is accomplished by…

This is the final technical report from the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education's (NRCCTE's) five-year longitudinal study of South Carolina's Personal Pathway to Success initiative, which was authorized by the state's Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA) in 2005. NRCCTE-affiliated researchers at the National…

This executive summary outlines key findings from the final technical report of a five-year study of South Carolina's Personal Pathways to Success Initiative, which was authorized by the state's Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA) in 2005. The Personal Pathways initiative is a K-16, career-focused school reform model intended to improve…

This Technical Appendix discusses how researchers from the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education (NRCCTE) conducted the five-year longitudinal study of South Carolina's Personal Pathway to Success initiative, which was authorized by the state's Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA) in 2005, and how they defined and…

This Technical Appendix is part of the report from the National Research Center for Career and Technical Education's (NRCCTE's) five-year longitudinal study of South Carolina's Personal Pathway to Success initiative, which was authorized by the state's Education and Economic Development Act (EEDA) in 2005. NRCCTE-affiliated researchers at the…

Although schools have served as a major target of both educational and mental-health oriented interventions, they have shown a marked tendency to assimilate innovative programs into existing patterns. This paper analyzes the sources and manifestations of resistance to change in schools and discusses the implications of such resistance for the…

Program improvement activities can be classified into four categories based on the source of the impetus and the locus of the change agent: systematic, symbolic, opportunistic, and pragmatic. This paper (1) describes the various approaches to implementing Chapter 1 program improvement activities at the state and local district levels in 13 western…

Describes problems in faculty evaluation and performance appraisal and presents assumptions and features of newer alternative faculty evaluation systems. A strategy for developing systems which is based on organizational change theory is discussed. This system involves use of committees and structured phases for faculty input. (MBR)

Describes the Principal-Teacher Interaction Study that focused on the interventions made by nine elementary school principals and their staff and on their involvement together in the implementation of new curricula. Examines what principals and others did in the process of facilitating change and what effects their interventions had on the…

Describes a five step mechanism for promoting change and illustrates it with a case study from the Telecommunication and Broadcasting Training Institute (TBTI) in Saudi Arabia. The steps outlined are: (1) organizational analysis; (2) determining receptivity to change; (3) implementation strategy; (4) implementing change and overcoming resistance;…