Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and recent efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable have been hotly debated among practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large. Much of the debate centers on the merits and demerits of these initiatives and the general approach they represent to reforming teaching and learning. In this…

Current political polarization and competing priorities complicate development of sound education policy. Particularly troubling is the disconnect between research and policy, as decision makers rely more on the work of think tanks and advocacy groups than the knowledge base of the profession. The mismatch between higher education and policy…

The main objective of the study was to implement an action research strategy to improve the teaching and learning of biology in senior secondary schools in Nigeria. Specifically the following research questions were raised: (1) What are the levels of intellectual challenge included in the activities used for classroom and laboratory instructions?…

Purpose: A common strategy used in school improvement efforts is a mandated process of formal planning, yet little is known about the quality of plans or the relationship between plan quality and implementation. This mixed-methods article investigates plan quality, factors associated with plan quality, and the relationship between plan quality and…

This paper aims at providing a theoretical and empirical discussion on the concept of pedagogisation which derives from the hypothesis of a new era of "totally pedagogised society" in Basil Bernstein's work. The article is based on empirical research on higher education policy, with a focus on the implementation of curriculum change…

Faculty development efforts have had varying success in changing the culture of a department or institution. In this paper, we describe a faculty development program using a residents as teachers (RATS) curriculum that we believe effected educational change in a department with a history of suboptimal student evaluations on the clerkship and an…

The purpose of the case study was to explore how one rural elementary school implemented a one to one (1:1) iPad initiative with a focus on leadership. The distributed leadership model provides the framework for this research. The idea that the transformation of schools falls on one leader is impractical and unattainable (Elmore, 2004; Gronn &…

Principals' implementation of national reforms in the educational arena resembles a wild ride on a roller coaster as they face with contradicting demands, ongoing confusion and ambiguity. As critical change agents, principals interpret and translate reform demands into local practices through a process of sense-making. This current qualitative…

The research tried to examine the role of school principal in facilitating change in teaching-learning process. Moreover, it has focused on the main roles of principal in implementing LCIP. The research employed both quantitative and qualitative methods. The study used a random sample of 62 teachers from a purposefully selected five junior schools…

The article examines the scope for initiative and independent action that lies with school principals in Kazakhstan, with a particular focus on capacity-building approaches. The study is situated within a large collaborative project between three institutions: the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education, Nazarbayev University Graduate School…

This study focused on the lived experiences of a team of four rural middle school teachers as they made the transformation from traditional classrooms to personalized learning classrooms. The teachers were beginning their third year of personalized learning implementation as the study took place. The researcher investigated participants'…

The pivot point for educational change is now firmly placed with the district, rebalancing the position of the state and the school relative to the local education agency (LEA). The state education agency (SEA) has been shifting its emphasis for decades, from a compliance-focused authority to a change agent equipped with systems, processes,…

In August 2010, the California State Board of Education adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). Three years later, the president of the State Board, Dr. Michael Kirst, noted that CCSS "changes almost everything," including what teachers teach, how they teach, and what students are expected to learn (Kirst, 2013). Echoing his…

This article is a retrospective analysis of successful planning processes implemented in an urban school district in the Northeast United States to improve student behavior by incorporating positive behavior activities and strategies as well as infusing more specific character education into the curriculum. The results after three years of…

A preliminary study was conducted to find out the readiness of general elementary schools (GES) to become inclusive elementary schools (IES) based on the criteria for the implementation of the government-specified inclusive schools. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews in 50 general elementary schools involving principals, teachers,…