This article outlines the experiences of a first-year writing program's adoption of large-scale portfolio assessment as part of its move from student-focused assessment to programmatic assessment. This research is an attempt to provide evidence to support the claims benefits associated with portfolio assessment and to chronicle the changes that…

The story of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in schools in Australia started in 1996 with the limited involvement of schools in the Australasian Urban and Regional Information Systems Association (AURISA) "GIS in schools" competition. AURISA is now known as the Spatial Science Institute (SSI) and is conducting the Spatial Technology…

Few evidence-based instructional practices achieve large-scale use, often remaining only in the schools directly involved in their development. Research on scaling up effective educational practice often lacks sensitive measures of the practice's implementation and the required research protocol. This article describes how we used rate of…

The Untied Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Competency Standards for Teachers (ICT-CST) project aims to improve teachers' practice in all areas of their work, combining ICT skills with innovations in pedagogy, curriculum, and school organization. It is also aimed at…

When studying different types of returns to education, educational reforms are commonly used in the economics literature as a source of exogenous variation in education. The Swedish compulsory school reform is one example; the reform extended compulsory education throughout the country, in different municipalities at different points in time. Such…

The purpose of this case study is to describe the challenges one coach faced during the initial implementation of a coaching initiative involving 33 teachers in an urban, high-poverty elementary school. Reading coaches are increasingly expected to play a key role in the professional development efforts to improve reading instruction in order to…

This article develops a conceptual framework for studying how three comprehensive school reform (CSR) programs organized schools for instructional change and how the distinctive strategies they pursued affected implementation outcomes. The conceptual model views the Accelerated Schools Project as using a system of cultural control to produce…

This project came about after discussions with the general manager of the Wellington Region Free Kindergarten Association and Jeanette Clarkin-Phillips (University of Waikato) about setting up a research partnership to support the teachers at Taitoko Kindergarten in Levin. The teachers were establishing an integrated community centre (the whanau…

This paper offers a literature review of materials concerning inclusion of students with disabilities, and reports on the 3-year development of an inclusion program at one elementary school in Texas. The literature review is organized into sections which address legislative initiatives and law, special education programs with mainstreaming, the…

Contributors to this volume address the feasibility of work-based education as a reform for the U.S. educational system and consider whether such strategies will work with large numbers of students. Costs, problems of implementation, and alternative approaches are discussed. The following papers are presented: (1) "Introduction" (Thomas…

Beginning in 1990, the United States and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducted an international, 14-nation study of programs for at-risk children. This report presents findings from the second year of the study, during which the Planning and Evaluation Service of the U.S. Department of Education reviewed the…

The 5-14 Development Programme is a major reform encompassing the whole of the curriculum, assessment, national testing and reporting for pupils 5- to 14 years of age in Scotland. To monitor the early years of implementation of the program, the Scottish Office Education and Industry Department (SOEID) commissioned a national evaluation with a…

This guidebook offers strategies for creating a district context that is conducive to initiating and sustaining school improvement. Designed to provide resources for those working at school district level, the five stages of the school-improvement process are based on effective-schools research--organize, focus, analyze, develop, and…

This packet provides an update on the federally funded School-to-Work Outreach Project. Copies are provided of the profiles describing these exemplary models/practices/strategies identified in Fall 1996: SCRIPT (South County Regional Interagency Postsecondary Transitions), Gilroy, California; The STRIVE Program, Roxbury, Massachusetts; Pathways to…

One of the main reasons why educational change often fails is the neglect of implementation. This book presents a summary of what has been learned during the past decades about implementing successful school improvement. Chapter 1 provides an overview of this knowledge, identifying factors and processes associated with success, and pointing to…