In recent decades, performance-based accountability (PBA) has become an increasingly popular policy instrument to ensure educational actors are responsive to and assume responsibility for achieving centrally defined learning goals. Nonetheless, studies report mixed results with regard to the impact of PBA on schools' internal affairs and…

The purpose of this comparative quantitative study was to test adherence to the accountability theory by comparing perceptions of South Carolina public school principals without procedural due process rights as administrators with public school principals in New Jersey that have procedural due process rights through tenure regarding the tools used…

Cheating and unethical behavior in the context of high-stakes accountability has been well documented. Recently, the US Department of Education found Texas schools failing to comply with the nation's special education law as a result of a state accountability policy. This article examines how a group of principals recognized for their…

This qualitative study examines how accountability policies impact school principals' social justice commitment. The study involved semi-structured interviews with twenty-two Ontario principals. Findings show that principals responded to the accountability policies with strikingly mixed emotions. Some grudgingly accepted the mandates and…

This paper reports on a study that investigated the appraisal of middle leaders in three New Zealand secondary schools in order to determine what constituted effective performance appraisal and how this practice could be improved from the perspective of this middle tier of leadership. Overall, appraisal was variably practised and seen as a…

In an era of heightened accountability and limited fiscal resources, school districts have sought novel ways to increase the effectiveness of their principals in an effort to increase student proficiency. To address these needs, some districts have turned to pay-for-performance programs, aligning leadership goals with financial incentives to…

Turkey is now on its way to reforming compulsory education and having a more effective and efficient education system by creating more accountable schools. This research has been designed in a causative pattern to discover the effects of external academic performance pressures on school accountability policies and school accountability responses…

School performance pressures apply disproportionately to tested grades and subjects. Using longitudinal administrative data--including achievement data from untested grades--and teacher survey data from a large urban district, we examine schools' responses to those pressures in assigning teachers to high-stakes and low-stakes classrooms. We find…

"The Wiley Handbook of Educational Supervision" offers a comprehensive resource that explores the evolution of supervision through contributions from a panel of noted experts. The text explores a wealth of topics including recent and dramatic changes in the complex context of today's schools. This important resource: (1) Describes…

Time capacity is defined here as the individual teacher's perceived time for professional development (e.g., the capacity to develop and renew oneself as a teacher). The pressure of paperwork on the individual teacher should not be so demanding that it goes beyond the teacher's time for professional development. The purpose of this paper is to…

The country is at a crossroads in implementing measures of educator effectiveness in K-12 classrooms. While the vast majority of states require student growth and achievement to be factored into teacher and principal evaluations, most states and school districts are now grappling with the practical realities of implementing these policies. In this…

In the United States, as public demands for quality teachers have escalated, there has been a corresponding increase in national policy efforts to tie the standards of student success to teacher preparation, licensing, and evaluation. This conceptual paper examines how national authorities used specific policy tools to usurp the state's…

The Seattle-based Alliance for Education recently asked the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) to review the newly negotiated collective bargaining agreement for teachers in Seattle. This analysis comes one year after NCTQ released a study looking at the human capital policies in the city's schools, focusing largely on ways to improve…

Standards and accountability have become a central issue of educational reform in many countries. Professional standards for teachers and principals have been developed, and benchmarking and comparison are at the heart of the new performance assessment. "Designer leadership" has become a defining theme for leadership in the appearance of regimes…

The second edition of NAESP's "Leading Learning Communities: What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do" features new strategies to help principals structure and support learning communities to develop the whole child, prepare students for a changing global economy and society, rethink the learning day by bridging school and community, and make…