This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Organizing for Learning Improvement: What It Takes (Andrea M. Pope and Keston H. Fulcher); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence -- Imperative #2, Attracting and Retaining Talent to Support Assessment Excellence (Stephen P. Hundley);…

This practice report explores the development and impact of two podcasts that we have developed and hosted. Drawing on our experiences as academics working closely together, one non-Indigenous (Barney) and the other Ngugi/Wakka Wakka (Bunda), we discuss the reasons for choosing the podcast medium, the development of the podcasts and their emerging…

The foundation year and specialization year of study are the accepted framework for graduate social work education. A common belief among educators is that accreditation standards are prescriptive by design, resulting in a rigidity that neither encourages nor supports curricular innovation. This article outlines a newly developed curriculum model…

Over the past five years, Albany State University (ASU) has reconstituted its Education Specialist Leadership Tier II Program to prepare school principals to work in some of the least served schools in southwest Georgia (and, as described below, outside of Georgia as well). Prior to the redesign of the program, ASU was struggling with a limited…

Higher education insiders trumpet the use of results for improvement as the most important part of the assessment cycle. Yet, at the same time, we acknowledge the rarity of improvement, especially at a program level. What are some reasons the most important phase of assessment occurs so infrequently? To seek answers, we investigated the "Use…

The National Geographic Society, the Association of American Geographers, the American Geographical Society, and the National Council for Geographic Education partnered to outline a "road map" for long-term strategies to improve K-12 geography education. The partner organizations assembled three committees to create synthesis reports, each of…

Quality improvement (QI) initiatives are critical in the care of older adults who are more vulnerable to substandard care. QI education meets aspects of core Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education competencies and prepares learners for the rising focus on performance measurement in health care. The authors developed, implemented, and…

Indiana's declining SAT scores prompted the publisher of a statewide magazine covering the literary, performing, and visual arts to take action and create a program to use the magazine as a supplemental resource for students. It was believed that such a supplemental resource could enhance critical thinking and writing skills and help raise SAT…

The purpose of this article is to describe lessons learned from studying the leadership in eight award-winning secondary schools and districts that were recognized for successfully leveraging technology as part of their efforts for school improvement. Data were collected through observations, interviews, and document analysis in schools and…

In order to improve the quality of technology instruction, the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Business Department in the Spokane Public School district has aligned its Computer Applications (CA) course to the district's ninth-grade Springboard (Language Arts) curriculum, Algebra I curriculum, and the Culminating Project (senior project)…

Many students are capable of reading a chapter, doing the end-of-chapter questions, studying a little bit, and passing the chapter test. Many teachers are in the habit of using a textbook as a crutch to fall back on when creativity is lacking. Others are capable of teaching incredibly creative lessons based on state standards but are bound by the…

The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC), a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, seeks to help policy makers and policy implementers alike do a better job of using educational policy as a tool to improve schooling and student learning. EPIC works with federal agencies, state education departments, non-governmental organizations, private…

Creative Partnerships aims to change the ways in which children learn and teachers teach, and to support whole school change. Our research examines how schools take up the "cultural offer" made by Creative Partnerships. In this article, drawing on data from snapshot visits to 40 English schools, we suggest that it has made a difference…

Implementation of the curriculum-centered, standards-based federally mandated reform, No Child Left Behind, has placed pressure on teachers, particularly those working in schools comprised of highly diverse and impoverished students, to have their students attain predetermined levels on high stakes, standardized tests. When schools have not met…

The Middle School Task Force was created in May 2007 as a result of the State Board of Education's High School Redesign efforts and recommendation for a committee to examine middle school issues to meet the following goals: (1) To ensure that all students are prepared to be successful in high school; (2) To increase academic engagement and student…