Education systems are complex and involve many diverse actors. In order to have an impact on children's outcomes, policies and programmes must take on this complexity. Most education interventions are centrally designed, yet, in increasingly decentralized systems, they need to be adopted -- and often undergo adaptation -- at multiple levels of…

School principals across the nation are asked, each year, to implement policy changes in schools that are meant to improve student performance on standardized tests and increase student achievement. Principals, however, face numerous obstacles that prevent them from implementing policies with fidelity to the policy designs. In New York City (NYC)…

This critical essay discusses the challenges and prospects for the reform of school-based literacy programs. It begins with an overview of the effects of a decade of test-driven accountability policy on research and teachers' work, noting the continuing challenges of new demographics, cultures and technologies for literacy education. The case is…

Evaluation and accountability are two of the most popular catchwords employed by higher education reformers in the Western world over the last 25 years. For 25 years governments throughout Western countries have been using evaluation and institutional accountability as policy tools to steer their university systems at a distance. From a…

The accountability report of the Georgia University System summarizes expenditures and progress made in achieving earlier goals. Following an overview which identifies major strategies toward the goal of a more educated Georgia, a section summarizes progress on major initiatives broken down into those funded in 1995-1997 legislative sessions,…

This summary report is one of a series addressing major policy, management, or program issues facing Congress and the administration. The issues identified in this report indicate the need to: reduce the cost and preserve the integrity of higher education student loan and grant programs; enhance the federal role in monitoring lenders, agencies,…

This paper describes the current climate of performance reporting in higher education for the U.S. and New York State. Since the 1980s, there has been strong continuing interest in making higher education more accountable to the public for the resources it uses and results it achieves. By 1994, almost all institutions in the nation engaged in…

This document discusses the principles that guide the development of the contingent funding methods and the implementation criteria for the Partnership for Excellence Program, as well as significant issues and questions for the system to resolve. The first principle states that the level and pace of progress toward the Partnership goals are not…

Ontario public school systems are responsible for ensuring that Ministry of Education documents, such as subject guidelines, are implemented in their schools. This paper describes an implementation plan developed and used in Simcoe County by a large rural school board with modest program support staff. Four distinct phases characterize this…

The implementation of a legislative mandate to promote innovation in postsecondary education through the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) is analyzed. Attention is directed to how this highly discretionary program successfully translated policy goals into grants practices. The values of two implementation strategies…

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act is praiseworthy for the special attention it gives to improved learning for children who have been ignored or left behind in the past. The emphasis on closing the achievement gap is certainly commendable, as is the encouragement given to states to adopt ambitious subject matter standards and enhance teacher…

A study was done of the state level perspective on Chapter 1 program implementation under the 1988 amendments to the Elementary and Secondary School Improvement Act. In 1991-92, the study surveyed 50 out of 53 Chapter 1 coordinators in state education agencies (SEAs) whose offices are responsible for communicating the law's provisions to school…

Research was conducted to determine whether Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) services were being targeted to those most in need, to identify which participants got which services, and to identify associations between characteristics, services, and outcomes. Data were obtained on 5,300 youth from a random sample of 63 service delivery areas. The…

This report describes how successful statewide programs of educational standards and assessment are established and briefly discusses causes of program failure. Four key stages characterize effective program establishment: (1) planning, (2) development, (3) implementation, and (4) monitoring. Planning involves interaction among all parties, for…

The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) was the first significant attempt to retool the nation's workforce development programs since the early 1980s. Titles I-V of the WIA do the following things: (1) establish the purposes, goals and operational framework of a workforce development system designed to increase participants' employment,…