While Massachusetts has received accolades for its high scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, absolute results from standardized tests tend to correlate strongly with family income and parental education. The Massachusetts Consortium for Innovative Education…

This paper is written for state educational agency (SEA) leaders who are considering the benefits of collaborative benchmarking, and it addresses the following questions: (1) What does benchmarking of best practices entail?; (2) How does "collaborative benchmarking" enhance the process?; (3) How do SEAs control the process so that "their" needs…

State education agencies (SEAs) are under fire and face new expectations from all sides. The federal government, state legislatures and governors, and citizens themselves are calling upon the SEA to do "more"--more to improve outcomes for students, more to close the achievement gap, and more to meet the diverse instructional needs of students.…

The national qualifications framework (NQF) in South Africa has been seen internationally as one of the most, if not "the" most, ambitious qualifications frameworks. Support for the NQF at its inception was described as "extraordinary". It aimed to replace all existing qualifications in the country with a set of new…

A growing number of countries are introducing qualification frameworks (QFs) following a common definition of outcomes, level descriptors, and a set of occupational or knowledge fields. Botswana has been no exception to this trend. The passing of the Vocational Training Act (1998) led to the creation of the Botswana National Vocational…

The Study of School Turnaround examines the improvement process in a purposive sample of 35 case study schools receiving federal funds through the School Improvement Grants (SIG) program over a three-year period (2010-11 to 2012-13 school years). This evaluation brief focuses on 11 of these SIG schools with high proportions of English Language…

In a struggling atmosphere for education, one college is optimistic about the future by offering school districts its PRISM Principles professional development as a means to ensure that "no child is left behind." Pacific Oaks College & Children's School is known for its premiere programs in early childhood education, human…

This single-case study addresses the lack of qualitative research describing the instructional role of the superintendent. Guiding this study are two research questions, "How does the goal implementation process as an element of the superintendent's organizational approach impact student success?" and "How does defined autonomy as…

The research addressed the problem of technology initiatives failing to meet organizational objectives. The purpose of the quantitative correlation study was to determine the relationship between transformational leadership styles, decision-making styles, and technology readiness. The findings of the study answered research questions in three…

This first of two reports presents early findings from the National Evaluation of the Comprehensive Technical Assistance Centers (Comprehensive Centers), a federally funded program that provides technical assistance to states in connection with the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. The law authorizing the Comprehensive Centers, the…

Employing rigorous qualitative research methodology, we studied the implementation of two schools' uniform policies. Their primary intents were to eliminate competition, teach young people to dress appropriately, decrease nonacademic distractions, and lower the parental clothing costs. The young people differed with adults regarding whether or not…