Ensuring quality in and through teaching and learning has become a fundamental global concern. Emanating from a colloquium on "Quality Assurance and Teacher Education" hosted by University College Dublin in 2010 and funded by the European Educational Research Association, this book interrogates how quality cultures can be fostered in the…

This book addresses the need to diversify mainstream forms of assessment currently used in Higher Education in order to re-establish the focus on the learning process. Making assessment central to student learning is about returning to what current research emphasises: the primary beneficiary of assessment should be the student. To achieve this in…

Now that most states have adopted the new Common Core State Standards, the next major challenge is to simplify and implement them by 2014. That is why it is important to begin this work now. Joe Crawford, Milken Award-winning educator and author of "Using Power Standards to Build an Aligned Curriculum", shares his proven process for…

This book presents a schoolwide model of instructional support designed to make the most of available time, resources, and personnel--one that is also fully compatible with other problem-solving models, such as response to intervention. The authors provide a comprehensive and cohesive framework for linking assessment and intervention. They show…

Many educators agree that we already know how to foster student success, so what is keeping common sense from becoming common practice? The author provides step-by-step guidance for overcoming the barriers to adopting the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and achieving equity and excellence for all students. As an experienced teacher and…

"Designing School Systems for All Students" provides a clear methodology for school leaders, teachers, and school board members to follow as they redesign their schools for the benefit of students. The authors demonstrate how school leaders set the expectations for all students to learn and grow as important contributors to the culture. In the…

This book contains a collection of formal and informal reading assessments for use with students in Grades K-12. These assessments assist the teacher in targeting areas of strength and weakness, in monitoring student reading development, and in planning appropriate instruction. Unlike large-scale achievement tests, the majority of these…

Guidelines are presented for project evaluation techniques with emphasis on the management of a project or an educational program. Part One--general considerations--discusses the four basic concepts of the decision-making evaluation model: objectives, evaluative criteria, analysis/synthesis, and evaluation. Stages in the evaluation of a system are…

It is possible to remain faithful to the general intentions of management by objectives (MBO) while boiling it down to four major points. First, MBO places the emphasis on results rather than on resources or the ways in which resources are utilized. Second, responsibility for achieving these results is shared jointly by the superior and his…

This book presents 16 papers on assessment in higher education grouped into four sections on: first, systems approaches to assessment; second, the effectiveness of innovative assessment; third, assessing practice; and fourth, autonomous assessment. The included papers are: (1) "Institutional Strategies for Assessment" (Sally Brown); (2)…

This book argues that schools are doing a better job than is commonly portrayed by the media and various commission reports. However, it cautions that schools must move beyond incremental improvements. One need not assume school failure to propose school reform. Chapter 1 examines limitations of the research that has portrayed a national…

This book is designed to help educators recognize and, if necessary, change a school's culture. It guides principals, other administrators, and teachers in the process of shaping the culture of their schools. For those who have already begun the process, the book provides insights, examples, and reassurance that their efforts are headed in the…

This book offers a step-by-step, systematic process for designing high-performance learning organizations. The process helps administrators develop proposals for redesigning school districts that are tailored to the district's environment, work system, and social system. Chapter 1 describes the characteristics of high-performing organizations, and…

Given the current social and economic changes, American education must change in order to connect students to the future. This book is comprised of a collection of essays on the topic of systemic change in education. The book focuses on reform for the future by bringing together systems theory with detailed examples of strategies and cases that…

This collection provides a new perspective for understanding what assessment can do to promote continuous improvement in education. The concepts of systems thinking, continued learning, mental models, shared vision, and team building are highlighted in the selections, which include: (1) "A Systems Approach to Assessing School Culture"…