Federal incentives and requirements under the Obama administration spurred states to adopt major reforms to their teacher evaluation systems. We examine the effects of these reforms on student achievement and attainment at a national scale by exploiting the staggered timing of implementation across states. We find precisely estimated null effects,…

The United States faces an unprecedented mental health crisis, with youth and young adults at the center. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly 50 percent of college students reported at least one mental health concern. The COVID-19 pandemic notably exacerbated these issues and underscored the urgent need to identify and implement ways to…

We studied a case of a school in a high need setting that undertook multiple simultaneous initiatives during a major school reorganization. We focused on the simultaneous implementations of two comprehensive initiatives, one related to ambitious mathematics teaching and one related to the Understanding by Design curriculum writing process. We…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore a concept that has been less examined in empirical research on school organization, namely Network Learning Capacity (NLC). It is proposed that teachers' professional networks enhance teachers' individual NLC. This process leads to a formation of professional community (PC) and therefore affects the…

This case study describes how Porterville Unified School District (PUSD), a rural school district in California's Central Valley, began to fulfill its vision to transform high school and career education through the implementation of Linked Learning. Linked Learning is a state-wide initiative for redesigning large comprehensive high schools into…

Researchers have identified ninth grade as one of the most critical periods of time for intervention to prevent the loss of motivation, failing grades, and dropping out of school. This Information Capsule is concerned with the efficacy of ninth-grade centers or academies which isolate ninth-grade students into separate school buildings or in wings…

Individually Guided Education (IGE) is an alternative to the traditional age-graded form of elementary schooling. In a typical IGE school, the principal shares her/his authority with leaders of units in decision-making domains and reaches decision by consensus. The leader of a unit in turn shares his/her authority with unit teachers in making…

A survey of 150 elementary schools was conducted to examine the organizational characteristics, not the characteristics of individual teachers, that facilitate or impede mainstreaming implementation. Individual variables were grouped into three categories--communication/information variables, administrator variables, and demographic variables. (SB)

Several aspects of unplanned system change in schools are investigated in this paper. Researchers relied heavily on current theoretical perspectives on the nature of educational systems, particularly those that emphasize the "loosely coupled" nature of educational organizations. Two hypotheses were tested. The first is that natural…

As part of a longitudinal study of external assistance in school change, cooperative efforts between an external agency and five schools were analyzed to identify characteristics of the social structure of schools that affect change implementation. Data were collected through extensive observations and interviews. The schools evidenced a…

A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis support the proposition that tight cultural, structural, and interpersonal linkages in a school's organization increase the degree of implementation of new classroom practices. The three-year study involved 14 schools engaged in instructional improvement projects with an external…

A study of instructional change in three schools reveals that a change strategy should take advantage of existing communication networks. Where there is little interdependence among teachers, administrators need to encourage its growth and replace the egg crate form of organization with arrangements that increase teacher interaction. (MLF)

As of January 1996, 20 states had enacted charter school laws. This brief summarizes the history of charter school laws and updates their current status across the country. The brief presents the findings of various charter school research projects conducted at the state and national levels. When substantive changes have been made to existing…

The adoption of a school-based management/shared decision-making administrative process (SBM/SDM) was recommended for the Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) school district in June 1990. Findings of a study that determined the attitudes of three non-Chapter 1 elementary school communities in Philadelphia toward the adoption of SBM/SDM are presented in…

Studies in five Missouri districts identified eight characteristics deterring change and constituting an "informal covenant" between teachers and principals. Eight corresponding conditions essential to change include relating changes to a school's culture, knowing local procedures and sensitive issues, recognizing moments when changes are…