"It's Not Rocket Science - A Guide to the School Improvement Cycle: With Examples From New Zealand and Australian Schools" presents an easy-to-read, practical guide to effectively leading school improvement. It walks leaders through each step of 'The School Improvement Cycle' developed by Bendikson and Meyer, providing case studies,…

Schools address students' educational needs by delivering a range of traditional and innovative programs. Selecting, implementing, and sustaining a new program is a school improvement initiative. Despite investments of (often) substantial resources, many such programs have relatively short school lives. Effective educational initiatives need to…

The tsunami of global educational reform in the past decade has led to national, regional and school-based policy redevelopment to elevate teaching standards, enrich student learning and improve results. Consequently, principals are frequently charged with leading mandated pedagogical reform in their schools. Building on earlier research…

Policy makers in the US and several other countries are recommending that more schools offer an International Baccalaureate (IB) programme. However, little is known about the challenges that IB programmes present for teaching and learning particularly those meeting national curriculum. In this study, we examined the challenges of the IB's Middle…

The Australian Council for Educational Research's submission to the Australian Government Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training's Public Enquiry into Adult literacy and its importance highlights the importance of these skills to Australia's well-being and economy, and calls on the government to continue participation in an…

This article explores the significance of context within the process of contemporary education reform and policy-making. It draws upon evidence from a comparative study of educational change and transformation in seven education systems: Australia, England, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Russia, and Singapore. The article focuses on school…

This research was commissioned by the (then) Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) to provide recommendations on how to best support Western Australian (WA) secondary schools to engage in education for sustainability (EfS). The research aims were to identify barriers and benefits to being involved in EfS, the support systems required…

Questions persist regarding implementation of mental health promotion, prevention, and early intervention initiatives in schools. To date, attention has targeted the "Whats" and "Hows" in design and implementation. Ongoing clarification of "Who" the key proponents are working in this space receives less consideration.…

Distributed leadership has been explored internationally as a leadership model that will promote and advance excellence in learning and teaching in higher education. This paper presents an assessment of how effectively distributed leadership was enabled at five Australian institutions implementing a collaborative teaching quality development…

The components of quality educational planning for students with moderate and severe intellectual disability are well established, but schools and special educators may not always achieve a desirable standard. This article reports on the change in quality of documentation related to individual planning and programming over a span of 4 years in a…

Taking the students' perspective, Education Policy Outlook 2018: Putting Student Learning at the Centre analyses the evolution of key education priorities and key education policies in 43 education systems. It compares more recent developments in education policy ecosystems (mainly between 2015 and 2017) with various education policies adopted…

There is a body of research around the uptake of digital technologies in secondary schools, and a growing body of research specifically designed to investigate the use of one-to-one laptop programs. However this research focused on the initial uptake of the digital technology or initial implementation of a one-to-one (1:1) laptop policy. Given the…

The College Assessment for Learning Program (CALP) was initiated in order to improve student learning outcomes and to strengthen professional conversations across three campuses. It was based on a backward mapping process developed earlier at one of the junior campuses with successful outcomes. Analysis of NAPLAN, School Certificate and Higher…

"I can feel it making my brain bigger": from a Year 8 student at Pinjarra Senior High School (SHS) halfway through the two-year Thinking Science Program. Pinjarra was a pilot school for the program in 2009/10 and a growing number of schools in Western Australia (WA) are implementing this program in Years Seven to Nine as part of the…

This critical essay discusses the challenges and prospects for the reform of school-based literacy programs. It begins with an overview of the effects of a decade of test-driven accountability policy on research and teachers' work, noting the continuing challenges of new demographics, cultures and technologies for literacy education. The case is…