Funded by The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and Math Design Collaborative (MDC) offer a set of instructional and formative assessment tools in literacy and math, which were developed to help educators better prepare all students to meet the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and succeed beyond high…

The European Qualification Framework (EQF) is intended to transform European national qualification frameworks (NQFs) by moulding them into a learning outcomes framework. Currently adopted as an enabling law by the European Union, the EQF has now operated for several years. In order to secure widespread adoption, however, it will be necessary for…

This study attempts to identify and describe Minnesota superintendents' perceptions of barriers to district-level reform as well as compare superintendents' perceptions of district reform related characteristics. This research also strives to identify factors preventing Minnesota's district-level leadership from implementing national reform…

Teacher education in universities is under pressure. In many new education policies there is a renewed focus on teacher quality, and therefore quality initial teacher education. In some countries this renewed focus has led to a resurgence of "alternative approaches" to teacher education such as Teach for America / Australia. One of the…

This is a case study of the implementation of state STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) policy over the period of the first 18 months of building a regional STEM partnership. Fullan's change theory is the framework used to determine progress and associated challenges with building a regional STEM educational partnership and…

The Race to the Top fund (RTT) is intended to be a major federal investment in state and local education capacity and systemic education reforms aligned with federal policy priorities. In coming years, questions will be asked about the extent to which investments made through the RTT grant program improve educational productivity and…

In January 2007, the Oregon State Board of Education mandated a new Oregon diploma that strengthened high school graduation requirements with the aim of improving student readiness for college and career. Among the major changes was a requirement that students demonstrate proficiency in nine "essential skills" that included the…

Integrating digital age technology into an industrial age educational system is hard enough. Imagine introducing ed tech to a 450-year-old Jesuit educational paradigm. Find out how to seamlessly combine the NETS with a centuries-old framework to create an effective ed tech strategic plan. This article describes how the author successfully…

Active Learning in Maths and Science (ALMS) was a six-month face-to-face professional development program for middle school maths and science teachers carried out between June and November, 2010 in two Indian states. ALMS's theory of action is grounded in the belief that collaborative learning serves as a "gateway" to learner-centered…

The Early College High School (ECHS) initiative developed in response to calls to significantly decrease the number of first-generation college and underserved students of color and from poverty who are high school dropouts or marginally graduates (i.e., ill prepared for college). The ECHS model is different from other educational reforms in that…

For many years computing in New Zealand schools was focused on teaching students how to use computers, and there was little opportunity for students to learn about programming and computer science as formal subjects. In this article we review a series of initiatives that occurred from 2007 to 2009 that led to programming and computer science being…

The Developmental Strategies for College Readiness and Success Resource Guide was produced by the Education Commission of the States and the Southern Regional Education Board for the "Countdown to 2015: Developmental Strategies to Advance Readiness in the Common Core Era" convening held April 21-23, 2014 in Charlotte, North Carolina. The…

California has embarked on a major new wave of curriculum reform with the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the new English Language Development (ELD) standards, and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). The adoption of the CCSS builds a legacy of standards-based education reform in California that began with the…

Language and education planning issues and democratic policy implementation in the post-apartheid era in South Africa encompass a range of language-related issues and dilemmas that have counterparts in many countries, within the emerging global education system. The issues in South Africa were and continue to be shaped by the historical legacy of…

Traditionally, challenges such as how to sustain district reform, how to build a leadership pipeline, how to create an integrated project, or how to best intervene with struggling students would be resolved with a team of "experts" developing a solution in isolation of the stakeholders involved. By contrast, design thinking centers on the…