Excellence, equity and efficiency are key drivers for improvement in Scotland's education sector, including educational psychology. This paper discusses and evaluates the decisions taken by one Scottish Educational Psychology Service towards achieving the key outcomes of excellence, equity and efficiency through a redesign of their service…

What makes a leadership preparation program exemplary? All three exemplary programs featured in this special issue evidence strong learning orientations and more sustained improvement work in their pursuit of exemplary preparation. I therefore examine exemplary preparation from a process perspective that emphasizes continuous improvement. To help…

Teacher preparation programs (TPPs) have received a great deal of policy and research attention of late. And despite the commonsense notion that preparation for formal classroom responsibilities should improve the readiness of teacher candidates, the value of formalized preservice teacher education is unclear. In this review of the quantitative…

This Special Issues Brief from the Center on Great Teachers and Leaders (GTL Center) outlines the unique characteristics of high-need schools, supports state and district leaders as they consider their role in implementing initiatives with a focus on equity, and explores how programs can be customized to meet the unique circumstances of a…

Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and recent efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable have been hotly debated among practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large. Much of the debate centers on the merits and demerits of these initiatives and the general approach they represent to reforming teaching and learning. In this…

Ethiopia is a large country in the Horn of Africa. It has a diverse population of eighty million people who speak over thirty distinct languages. Approximately 80% of the population live in rural areas and rely on subsistence agriculture. Despite economic growth and an abundance of natural resources, it is a country with a per-capita income of…

This final report presents findings from a multi-year evaluation of the Comprehensive Technical Assistance Centers, a federally funded program that provides technical assistance to states in connection with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as reauthorized by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. With the redesign of the Center…

The impact of national education policies on programme design practice in post-compulsory education tends to be marginalised in scholarly literature. This paper reviews and analyses the literature to explore how neo-liberalist discourses introduced in tertiary education and qualifications policies in New Zealand since 1989 continue to influence…

This report presents the findings of the formative evaluation of the Understanding the Early Years (UEY) Initiative. The evaluation was conducted to examine issues of implementation and design, early progress in achieving immediate objectives, and issues related to accountability. The evaluation team was also asked to provide preliminary guidance…

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the second-year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, a statewide educator incentive program that operated in Texas. As part of this larger study, evaluators examined how participation in the TEEG…

With current considerations for reauthorization of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, national attention remains focused upon public education student outcomes. The purpose of this manuscript was threefold: to review the historical background of the standards reform movement; to discuss a research project to redesign program content and align…

In "Holding Accountability to Account: How Scholarship and Experience in Other Fields Inform Exploration of Performance Incentives in Education"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, argues educational…

Quality is fast becoming a policy priority in states and localities around the country. As a result, formal and informal networks of youth organizations are seeking and developing strategies to help them assess and improve performance. This report takes a close look at efforts underway in three networks and provides a preliminary framework for…

Interest is growing in planning and implementing new systems of holding child and family services accountable for results. The Results-Based Accountability (RBA) Project at the Harvard Family Research Project (HFRP) has supported and built upon recent state efforts to develop these new accountability systems for child and family services. This…

This report describes and evaluates Title I, the largest federal aid program in elementary and secondary education, with appropriations of over $3 billion in 1980. It assesses the impact of the program and introduces new efforts that were undertaken to enhance state and local coordination. Special attention is given to how the amendments of 1974…