Performance contracting has been acclaimed as an effective and promising means of improving the performance of public enterprises as well as government departments. The government of Kenya introduced performance contract signing in 2004. The aim of performance contracts was to improve resource utilization in public institutions among other…

In recent years, interest has spiked in data-driven decision making in education--that is, using various types of student data to inform decisions in schools and classrooms. In October 2008, the Council of the Great City Schools and American Institutes for Research (AIR) launched a project funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that focused…

The use of hypothesis testing is widespread in occupational education research. In this, the first of two parts dealing with hypothesis testing, the authors show that considering Type II error can strengthen research results. (Author)

Two issues of concern in education are addressed: (1) how should educational research be carried out and (2) why do practitioners so often fail to heed the findings from educational research? The author uses the conceptualization of Stephen Pepper which distinguished four different hypotheses about the nature of the world (formism, mechanism,…

Drawing on research conclusions about the process of educational change, this report seeks to demonstrate the importance of understanding the diverse factors that inhibit or enable school improvement efforts. The report focuses on leadership and support in achieving successful change and stresses that principals are but one of several players who…

Extent of agreement between retrospective and prospective measures of variables in 7 content domains (residence change, anthropometrics, injuries, reading ability, family characteristics, behavior problems, and delinquency) was studied for 1,037 New Zealand adolescents. Absolute agreement among measures was poor, suggesting caution when using…