The completion agenda is the dominant theme in higher education policy in the United States today, and one of the primary strategies advocated in the agenda is performance funding in budgeting for public institutions. Illinois is one example of a state that has attempted to implement performance funding as a means of directing the behavior of…

The reauthorization of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004 spurred sweeping changes for how special education students are identified in the United States. IDEA 2004 encourages schools to use Response to Intervention (RTI) as a new method for identifying special education students. As schools implement RTI, the principal…

Through a case study that highlights the role of rulemaking in the evolution of the "No Child Left Behind Act" (NCLB), this article provides strategies for educators who seek both to influence policy outcomes and to understand the dynamics of policymaking. This study examines the regulatory processes for NCLB, specifically related to the…

The evolution of the federal role in education policy has entailed increasing activism in matters traditionally controlled by states and school districts. However, the expanding federal role has not resulted in a zero sum game for states and localities. Focusing on the policy-implementation process, this article examines recent state and local…

This article contributes to an emerging body of literature on the impact of high stakes testing accountability policies on implementation and teaching practice. It uses a theory of implementation, sense-making, to highlight the process by which policy and context shape teacher decision making. We focus on teachers in bilingual classrooms in an…

Prevailing anti-violence practices in public schools, especially in the context of recently increased emphasis on bullying, often allocate more resources to surveillance and control than to facilitation of healthy relationships or conflict/ peace learning. This policy emphasis increases the risks of marginalization and reduces opportunities for…

This article offers an analysis of the origins, evolution, and impact of the Obama administration's Race to the Top (RTTT) competitive grant program and places it in the broader context of the debate over the No Child Left Behind Act and the shifting intergovernmental relations around education. RTTT is fundamentally about two things: creating…

School-community interactions facilitate connections between schools and their local surroundings; however, these relationships are subject not only to local political, economic, and social influences but also to broader political and institutional forces. Educational administrators' decisions about programming and partnering can be considered in…

This article examines the convergence of two popular school improvement policies: instructional coaching and data-driven decision making (DDDM). Drawing on a mixed methods study of a statewide reading coach program in Florida middle schools, the article examines how coaches support DDDM and how this support relates to student and teacher outcomes.…

This article examines early implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) accountability provisions. Theoretically, the author explains how executing education policy in the United States requires federal officials to employ tactics designed to assert control over state implementers while persuading them to adopt federal priorities as…

Although sympathetic to the philosophic goal of developing an adequacy conception, this article questions that goal's feasibility for any but the earliest primary grade levels. Suggested reform strategies are a grab bag of untested ideas. As evidence from the Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) project shows, little progress has been made in…

Attempts to implement the professional development school (PDS) are frustrated by a lack of consensus about these schools' defining characteristics. This article discusses some common criteria, emphasizes that the professional development school is not a laboratory or demonstration school, and compares the PDS to other forms of academic inquiry.…

Although individual components of reform initiatives may appear promising, little thought is given to possible inconsistencies resulting from implementing multiple reform components simultaneously. This article describes some unintended consequences arising from inconsistencies between and within components of Kentucky's systemic education reform.…

Presents a strategy for identifying schools that are restructured across several dimensions. Analyzes data from a nominated sample of restructured schools to discover relevant dimensions and criteria and degree of restructuring. Schools tended to meet more criteria in the areas of student experiences and teachers' professional life; significantly…

Describes design and implementation of the outreach and dissemination approach used by the National Center on Education in the Inner Cities, with emphases on building on existing structures for information dissemination, training, and technical support for research utilization. Application of the Model of Outreach and Utilization was guided by two…