This study was designed to explore campus administrators' best practices to achieve a campus rating of a B or better in the Texas Education Agency A-F rating system. This study takes an in-depth look at the various roles and responsibilities campus administrators' have to exhibit to influence campus accountability. The phenomenological study…

The current context of standards-based reform has positioned regional service centers (RSCs), intermediary governmental agencies that support state policy implementation in local districts, as a critical source of professional development (PD). In this article, we ask how a governing body that districts often interact with during challenging…

The current context of standards-based reform has positioned regional service centers (RSCs), intermediary governmental agencies that support state policy implementation in local districts, as a critical source of professional development (PD). In this article, we ask how a governing body that districts often interact with during challenging…

As a way to increase student engagement and encourage students to connect to their learning, some states have begun efforts to incorporate ethnic studies into state content standards. Ethnic studies standards focus on the "knowledge and perspectives of an ethnic or racial group, reflecting narratives and points of view rooted in that group's…

This study examines implementation of college-and-career-ready (CCR) education standards across five school districts in Ohio, Texas, California, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts. Drawing on the policy attributes theory, we found that the specificity of districts' approaches to two long-recognized policy levers, curriculum and professional…

The Texas A&M University System recently developed six quality standards for educator preparation programs, the Texas A&M Quality Standards for Educator Preparation, that are to be implemented and met by all system schools. These standards are: quality of selection of teacher candidates; quality of content knowledge and teaching methods;…

Is the Common Core really "dead"? Though no longer called the Common Core in our three study states, the "new" college-and-career readiness standards still guide much of education policy in Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky. In our new feature article in "Educational Researcher," lead author Dr. Laura Desimone, along with…

This study explores the instructional decisions made by elementary principals in implementing dual language programs, with a focus on the choice of language for state reading assessments. Utilizing a qualitative phenomenological approach, the research examines the lived experiences of eight principals in a South Texas school district, offering…

Though scholars agree that professional development (PD) is a key mechanism for implementing education policies that call for teacher change, and that PD generally needs to be content-focused, active, collaborative, coherent, and sustained, the application of this framework has yielded mixed results. In this qualitative study, we employed…

Roughly seven years have passed since the majority of states adopted college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards. Some states adopted the Common Core State Standards while others adopted their own versions of CCR standards. Because teachers are the primary implementers of CCR standards, we wanted to understand the challenges they face in using…

This study identifies seven major trends in how states and districts are implementing college- and career-ready standards for general education students and for two special populations often the target of education policy--English language learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities (SWDs). We draw on state-representative teacher, principal,…

This study identifies seven major trends in how states and districts are implementing college- and career-ready standards for general education students and for two special populations often the target of education policy--English language learners (ELLs) and students with disabilities (SWDs). We draw on state-representative teacher, principal,…

While many in the field of teaching grapple with the revisions that come with a growing decentralization of standards-based reform, teacher learning and understanding of college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards and revisions is critical to successful implementation. Even when fully supported and focused on implementing standards in the…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL) examines how college- and career-ready standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. The Center studies elementary and high school math and English Language Arts (ELA) standards, and has a…

Learning in makerspaces involves doing, playing, thinking, experimenting, creating, collaborating, mentoring, inquiring, problem-solving, producing, inventing, designing, building, and sharing (Loertscher, Preddy, and Derry 2013). Whatever the character of a makerspace, all makerspaces have the same goal: to actively engage students in open-ended…