Based on data from a longitudinal multiple case study, this article describes how district-level expectations, policies, and practices affected principals' responses to an external reform in two school districts, one urban and one suburban. The specific reform highlighted is a comprehensive family and community engagement approach developed…

SCALE-UP (Student-Centered Active Learning Environment with Upside-Down Pedagogies) (Beichner et al., 2007) is a reformed pedagogy and classroom design originally developed for large enrollment university physics courses at North Carolina State University. It is currently being used at over 250 institutions worldwide and has since expanded into…

The Common Core is at a critical juncture. While many surveys show that support for the standards themselves remains strong, implementation has not been without major challenges. "State Accountability in the Transition to Common Core," a new policy brief from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, provides cautionary advice about what key…

Launched in 2011, the Accelerating Opportunity (AO) initiative aims to increase the ability of students with low basic skills to earn valued occupational credentials, obtain well-paying jobs, and sustain rewarding careers. AO encourages states to change the delivery of adult education for students interested in learning career skills by enrolling…

The Eduardo Mondlane University (UEM) in Mozambique is introducing new participative forms of pedagogical practices into the process of its current curriculum reform. This article presents a case study of the introduction of a student-centred approach at one department and discusses some of the lecturers' perceptions and experiences concerning the…

The purpose of this article is to increase understanding of the factors that most significantly influenced the decision made by the Tucson Unified School District to implement the Mexican American Studies program in the late 1990's and early 2000's. This article outlines the process that led to the adoption of the program. The article further…

Purpose: Researchers and scholars have called for greater attention to collaboration among and between educational leaders in districtwide reform. This work underlines the important social aspect of such collaboration and further investigates the type of professional interaction among/between district and school leaders particularly around the…

Purpose: The health promoting school model is rarely implemented in relation to sexuality education. This paper reports on data collected as part of a five-year project designed to implement a health promoting and whole school approach to sexuality education in a five campus year 1-12 college in regional Victoria, Australia. Using a community…

This article aims to report how teacher education may promote active learning which is demanded by the current educational reform of Turkish teacher education (TE). This article also examines the effectiveness of the recent reforms in Turkey from a student's perspective, and provides an understanding of the concept of active learning, how it is…

Background: Comprehensive School Health models offer a promising strategy to elicit changes in student health behaviours. To maximise the effect of such models, the active involvement of teachers and students in the change process is recommended. Objective: The goal of this project was to gain insight into the experiences and motivations of…

Developing instructional capacity in schools is a central challenge of the Common Core movement. Most conceptualizations of capacity building focus on infusing externally generated professional development into schools. In this article, we explore the professional resources that reside inside schools that might be utilized to develop instructional…

Direct assessment competency-based education (CBE) is an online, self-directed learning innovation that is disrupting higher education. This study examined the development and early diffusion of direct assessment CBE at a private, nonprofit university. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the presence of organizational factors and the…

Qatar is undergoing major educational reform that is shifting its educational policy toward an instructional orientation grounded in constructivism and student-centered instruction. Differences in cultural conceptions of knowledge acquisition and the purpose of education are examined to highlight challenges to Qatar's reform implementation…

The paper explores if systemic implementation of collaborative practices impacts the educational culture of a school. Using the fundamental principles of Professional Learning Communities, the research analyzed what collaborative practices were implemented and if they were successful as cultural change agents. Section one discusses the different…

This article investigates the implementation of a quality assurance system in Georgia as a particular case of "Bologna transplant" in a transitioning country. In particular, the article discusses to what extent new concepts, institutions and models framed as "European" have been institutionalised in Georgia. Based on an outcome…