Whether to adopt national standards and tests has long been a subject of lively debate in the United States. With 47 states now participating in the Common Core State Standards Initiative, and a commitment from Education Secretary Arne Duncan to allocate hundreds of millions in stimulus funds to the development of common tests, the country is…

Outcome-based education (OBE) is a comprehensive approach to focusing, defining, and organizing all aspects of a school system around clear demonstrations of learning. Responds to issues opposition groups raise about OBE and describes a meeting of OBE supporters and opponents that yielded an agreement to seek common ground. (MLF)

Uses France and England--because of their radically different institutional and ideological traditions in education--to illustrate common trends in educational accountability. Explains general trends affecting advanced capitalist societies at the present time, e.g., the use of corporate management approaches in education and the adoption of…

Several principles of management that have long been discussed and implemented in business now are being debated by educators, says the author. This article discusses many of these management principles, such as goal development and decision making, accountability, and objectives-based instructional programs, and their applications for classroom…

This document, which draws heavily on lessons learned during 11 years of the Southern Regional Education Board's High Schools That Work initiative, is intended to help state leaders review their existing system for assessing accountability in vocational education or plan such a system. The document begins with a discussion of the purpose of…