Across the United States, students face increasingly high expectations of what they should know and be able to do upon completing high school. However, too few state policies take into consideration how the pathway to graduation may look different for English Learners (ELs), particularly adolescent newcomers who have limited formal education. Many…

Student performance and achievement are often seen as the only indicators of school success. This emphasis on accountability and achievement exacerbates the dropout crisis in public high schools as increasing numbers of students fail to graduate on time, many of whom eventually leave school without a diploma. This article demonstrates how a…

Purpose: The expansion of alternative education, globally, has coincided with a shift towards greater accountability for ensuring educational access and opportunity, high academic standards and increased graduation rates. While studies suggest the pervasive influence of accountability may be redefining how school leaders provide meaningful…

This final report presents findings from a multi-year evaluation of the Comprehensive Technical Assistance Centers, a federally funded program that provides technical assistance to states in connection with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. With the redesign of the Center…

U.S. high school students' lack of preparedness has serious implications for the economy and prosperity. For most of the nation's history, manufacturing workers with modest formal education could earn decent wages. For roughly 60 percent of the jobs in today's labor market, at least some postsecondary education is needed, and that percentage is…

The "Formative Evaluation of the Canada Student Loans Program" was undertaken to assess issues of program relevance, design and delivery and for the purposes of examining the early impacts of changes made to the program since 1998. The evaluation also reviewed the Performance Measurement Strategy contained in the July 2002 Results-Based…