As state governments seek to improve the performance of institutions of K-12 and higher education, they often adopt educational policies that have similar names but different characteristics across states and with variations over time within states. Yet quantitative analyses generally examine the absence or presence of an educational policy…

The Every Student Succeeds Act gives states greater flexibility in designing educational policy, but questions remain about whether and how states will use this opportunity to design truly innovative new policies to support higher levels of student learning. The authors describe how educational leaders in four states--California, Iowa, New…

This backgrounder details the scope of the following critical forum concerning Texas House Bill 51 (TX HB 51) of the 81st Legislature, also referred to as the emerging research university bill. In its totality the journal issue considers the impact of TX HB 51 on the organizational behavior of comprehensive regional institutions in the state of…

Minnesota needs drastically different and better approaches to learning in order to meet the needs of all students, and the challenges of the 21st century. That will require a move to more student-centered learning--that is, learning that is built on a foundation of strong relationships, responsive to basic needs, driven by students, respectful of…

In the United States, as public demands for quality teachers have escalated, there has been a corresponding increase in national policy efforts to tie the standards of student success to teacher preparation, licensing, and evaluation. This conceptual paper examines how national authorities used specific policy tools to usurp the state's…

This booklet examines performance-based education accountability systems in the United States. It defines the four components of these accountability systems--standards and assessments, multiple indicators, rewards, and sanctions--and discusses which ones are found in each state and whether or not they appear in law or regulation. All four…

This article is a response to recent revealing political attempts to set a political and social function for the Arts through the establishment of performance criteria. A long-standing feature of the historical development of government policy in the UK has been attempts to judge the effectiveness and efficiency of public activity (health,…

Throughout 1998, the National Education Goals Panel conducted interviews with policymakers in the states that have made top improvement and performance on indicators of progress toward the national education goals. State officials told the story behind the data and what they consider to be the reasons for their success. Their stories are intended…

This paper discusses policy issues faced by two-year colleges in the state of Washington during the first year of implementation of performance funding. Four key policy questions were reviewed: (1) the reward versus entitlement paradigm shift, which forces educators to alter expectations about "entitlement" to higher education funding…

To understand how assessment, particularly alternative assessment, and practice interactions may differ among schools with different implementation contexts and different school cultures, this project is studying over time a set of schools representing different state and local policy contexts and including different student populations. Research…

The assessment instruments of the Maine Educational Assessment emphasize extended constructed-response questions. The results from these assessments are reported in terms of percentages of students at four performance levels. The Student-Based Constructed-Response Method was used to establish performance standards for these levels on the…

The purpose and results of the state testing programs in Utah are described. At present there are seven major assessment programs conducted under the leadership of the Utah State Office of Education. These include the three components of the Core Assessment Program: Criterion-Referenced Tests and item pools, Writing Assessment, and the new…