Differentiating state services to support district and school improvement makes sense for two reasons: (1) support is most effective when targeted to the specific needs of the district or school, based on both performance data and diagnostic data about prevailing operational and professional practice; and (2) state resources of time and money are…

State education agencies (SEAs) are under fire and face new expectations from all sides. The federal government, state legislatures and governors, and citizens themselves are calling upon the SEA to do "more"--more to improve outcomes for students, more to close the achievement gap, and more to meet the diverse instructional needs of students.…

Paying for employee turnover costs, data storage, and multiple layers of benefits can be difficult for fiscally constrained institutions, especially as budget cuts and finance-limiting legislation abound in school districts across the country. Many traditional paper-based systems have been replaced with automated, software-based services, helping…

This article presents a partnership effort among managers, trainers, and employees to spring to life performance improvement using the performance templates (P-T) approach. P-T represents a process model as well as a method of training leading to performance improvement. Not only does it add to our repertoire of training and performance management…

Most organizations focus on one-off training solutions to address a single workplace learning need at a single time rather than integrating learning and nonlearning interventions to help staff develop increasingly complex levels of expertise specific to their jobs. Curriculum is a long-term, integrated approach to training in which workers take…

Strategic plans and performance objectives define the results to be accomplished, but selecting a suitable set of performance technologies for your organizations requires more than just knowing the intended benefits. The systematic procedures described in the article will guide you through practical processes and valuable tools for identifying…

Teacher evaluation has emerged as a major focus for reform at the highest levels of education policymaking, and for good reason. Most evaluations are based on scant evidence of actual effectiveness, produce inflated ratings, and provide teachers with little useful feedback. This paper offers policymakers and practitioners important "lessons…

This CED report examines teacher pay and other compensation issues. Schools must be able to compete effectively for college-educated workers who have more career choices and see themselves as more mobile professionally than did earlier generations. Traditional compensation policies for teachers (salary schedules that reward only longevity and…

Individuals and organizations are usually so immersed in day-to-day task completion that it is impossible to step back and scan the environment to determine (a) what work is crucial, (b) quality of current and past work, and (c) how the work contributes to larger organizational priorities. This focus on "just keeping up" with what must get done…