This paper has two purposes: First, we describe the components of the Student Ownership, Accountability, and Responsibility for School Safety (SOARS) framework in the context of the literature on school safety. Second, we offer outcomes from a pilot study testing the framework's impact on student perceptions of: (1) school belonging; (2) sense of…

This study reports on four urban middle- and high school principals' emotionally shaped sense making of Race to the Top policies and their ability to balance the competing demands of teachers' emotional needs with the charge to implement mandated, accountability-driven, instructional, and evaluation changes in their schools. Despite the pressure…

This study examined approximately 6,500 Florida students' reading and mathematics performance when taught by a sample of teachers who obtained their teaching credentials through the Troops to Teachers program. Results indicated that students served by Troops teachers performed about equally well in reading and achieved a small but statistically…

The recent policy focus on the turnaround of persistently low-achieving schools has generated considerable debate about the reforms needed to dramatically and quickly increase school performance. The purpose of this article is not to focus on specific turnaround interventions, but rather on the identification of schools slated to receive these…

Emphasis on the specific advantages of PPBS for principals, with special attention to evaluation as a component of PPBS and how it can improve principals' decision-making. (Editor)

The principal is at the crossroads of accountability, writes this author, who feels that plans for change are best brought about (and perhaps only) through the building principal. (Editor)

PPBS not only enables improved accountability, but also helps the school administrator exert true educational leadership. (Editor)

Too often school counselors are evaluated through a teacher-assessment process bearing little relevance to (poorly defined) counseling tasks or roles. Evaluation is hindered by lack of a developmental model and by administrative pressures to perform tasks outside counselors' training and experience. Improvement measures are outlined. (Contains 16…

Membership in the worldwide community means that students must possess globally competitive skills. In 1993, the author and the Colorado General Assembly worked to pass a comprehensive educational reform strategy that established "model" content standards in mathematics, science, geography, history, reading, and writing. Uniform…

A format for translating evaluation theory into practice structures the material around a series of questions that can be addressed in any situation. (Author/MLF)

Author gives thourough treatment to alternatives evaluation purposes and problems. (Editor)

Offers guidelines for making counseling programs accountable and the reporting of counseling activities relatively easy. Counselors must show that their work does make a positive difference in the lives of students. (Author/WD)

Describes the development of a program that improved communication among pupil personnel department workers in a high school. (IRT)

Examines and rejects nine reasons given by educators for opposing externally designed tests. Suggests a tenth, unvoiced reason that may be the most valid: that testing may reveal deficiencies in the school's educational program. (PGD)

The potential of minimum competency testing cannot be realized unless school districts engage in the complex processes of competency-based program development. (Author/MLF)