Education policymakers have long sought to establish teaching standards that will measure new or continuing teachers against these standards. The problem is, existing methods for certifying teachers have been criticized for being either so onerous as to deter good candidates or so lax as to keep weak teachers in the profession. To provide another…

Educational reform is becoming synonymous with accountability. However, designing an effective accountability system poses serious challenges for states as is clear from the progress and pitfalls experienced by states such as Texas, Kentucky, and California. For example, many states tend to overload their new accountability programs, resulting in…

The Research and Development Exchange (RDx) is a network of regional educational laboratories and university-based research and development centers working to support state and local school improvement efforts. Initiated by the National Institute of Education in 1976, the RDx is composed of eight Regional Exchanges and four central support…