Students who are deafblind are a unique population with unique needs for learning, communication, and environmental access. Two roles have been identified as important to their education: teacher of the deafblind and intervener. However, these roles are not officially recognized in most states. Because of this lack of recognition and the low…

Keeping a uniform, basic arrangement of the school library is essential if students are to be comfortable finding resources in other libraries. Two questions that must be answered if a new system were to be devised are: Who would decide on the particulars of that system? What criteria would be used to make the decision to ensure that use of the…

America can no longer afford an education system that fails to use data effectively to guide decisionmaking. The education sector is facing ever-increasing demands to improve student outcomes, reduce burden, increase efficiency, and improve transparency. These demands cannot be met without the strategic and effective use of data. Due to the…

Data are most useful when they are transformed into actionable information that people are able to access, understand and use. Thanks to both state and federal leadership, political commitment and investment of financial resources, states have made tremendous progress in the building of statewide K-12 longitudinal data systems. However, to ensure…

Student achievement depends upon successful passage through a series of transitions: elementary to middle school, middle school to high school, high school to college. Increasing the efficiency of successful transitions requires the collection and analysis of student data across these transition points. Yet long-standing separations between…

A rapidly changing global economy, shifting demographics, and concerns about our ability to maintain a competitive workforce have focused national attention on the educational systems of America's states, highlighting their critical role in ensuring a productive and creative future for our country. As a result, Americas colleges and universities…

The idea of "capacity" is particularly important in the reform of educational systems because the system can be both the initiator and the subject of change. In fact, the requirement for capacity is present at all levels of the system in systemic reform. In educational change, four types of capacity are generally considered: (1) human…

Discusses shaping educational accountability systems in the context of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. Suggests ways in which evaluation can contribute to improving and changing accountability systems, especially through the development of standards. (SLD)

Outlines implications of educational reform initiatives for psychologists and discusses the roles they can play in the process of educational reform. The experience of Kentucky with its Kentucky Educational Reform Act serves as an example of the systemic education reform efforts many states are undertaking and illustrates the importance of…

Describes a handbook that provides "best practice" guidelines for designing student recordkeeping systems for use by schools, school districts, state departments of education, and other educational institutions. Outlines the organization of the handbook. (SLD)

The call for systems change in juvenile justice is a response to serious and pervasive problems throughout the existing system. Congress has responded to some of these problems by enacting the State Challenge Activities program under Title II of the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974. This program provides incentives for…

This paper describes the implementation of the Holistic Systemic Evaluation (HSE), a component of an Education Systemic Initiative's strategic management. The HSE provides general guidance for the implementation and continual improvement of an Education Systemic Initiative Reform (ESIR). The implementation of the education system initiative plan:…

This paper is meant to help designers of educational accountability systems think more critically about the questions they want to ask schools and the kinds of analyses that best answer these questions. There are two essential questions in school evaluation: how good is this school, and is it getting better? Each of these questions then can be…

Within the last decade, the neighboring states of Kentucky and West Virginia have realized the need for--and have acted upon--school reform measures in their educational systems. This document compares and contrasts the two states' efforts to restructure their school systems. Both Kentucky and West Virginia initiated their respective reform…

Almost every state has in place a state assessment and accountability system. These systems vary greatly in their characteristics but share a common global purpose of improving teaching and learning. Some of the variations in the state systems are discussed and illustrated with examples from selected states. Issues that are critical to the value…