Purpose: This policy brief, the second AERI-NEPC eBrief in the series "Understanding validity issues around the world", focuses on validity as it applies to test-based models of evaluation employed for schools, instructional programs, and teachers around the world. It discusses validity issues that could arise when data from student…

This book will help changemakers move toward better functioning school systems and districts using reliable, participative, and practical methods. The author describes an orderly sequence of activities from getting started to monitoring continuing evolution of that most desirable future. These activities are intertwined with simple explanations of…

This guide presents practical applications from a research study about the processes that schools use to initiate and sustain reforms. It examines the history of 10 elementary schools in high-poverty settings, including details of behavioral and attitudinal changes. Ten capacities were associated with the stages of successful reform. The…

This article discusses implications of educational reform movements for improving the educational well-being of gifted students, in general, and gifted African-American students, in particular. Recommendations for educational improvements are offered in the areas of performance assessment, primary preschool programs, extended school services,…

This guide is designed to help educators make good decisions about comprehensive school reform (CSR). Since CSR takes different forms in different schools, the booklet should help schools craft a unique plan that builds on unique strengths. It emphasizes the importance of choosing carefully one or more research-based CSR models to serve as the…

This book addresses the critical issues of curriculum and instruction as they pertain to the restructuring of middle-level education. The first part deals with developing a sense of identity both with the middle-school movement and with young adolescents. Chapters include the following: "Perspectives on the Middle School Movement" (John H.…

In this book, eight contributors examine issues related to the likely effects of the decentralization of school governance on educational practice. Two major themes emerge in the book. The first (chapters 1 through 4) is that governance reforms in education may have little to do with what actually happens in schools, but have much to do with…

Comprehensive school improvement is based on reorganizing and revitalizing the entire school rather than focusing on specific student populations or programs. An overview of 17 schoolwide reform programs is provided in this book. The purpose of the text is to give education leaders basic information about some of the best-known externally…

Parents observing the national debate about educational choice may believe that choice possesses characteristics that are both positive and negative at the same time. The definition of choice should stem from the amount of choice provided. Unrestricted choice allows parents to choose any school in the state. Restricted choice has limitations such…

To move high schools into the twenty-first century, school leadership must undergo massive restructuring. Four reasons for schools' inability to change are cited, and characteristics of effective and efficient school are identified. An eight-step process of school restructuring and a school-design statement with three basic components and eight…

Describes several projects that have enabled teachers to leave the isolation of their own classrooms and think together about student work in the broader contexts of school improvement and professional development. (Contains 18 references.) (Author/MLF)

This guidebook is designed to serve as a resource and road map for restructuring schools, focusing on the development of a systematic process to implement and manage change. Chapter 1 defines restructuring as the reform of school-organizational relationships and processes to increase student learning and performance, with a focus on the following…

A framework for designing academic standards and for refining these standards through a curriculum- design process is provided in this book. The book is intended as a step- by-step guide than can be picked up and followed by any interested educator. Chapter 1 begins with a brief discussion concerning the need for standards and examines several…

The Goals 2000 Act creates a framework for establishing high academic and skill standards. Offers ideas and suggestions for creating a community or school strategy to reach the National Education Goals. Lists key questions that require answers and ways that central office staff members can provide assistance to the local school site. (MLF)

Paradoxically, although major forces in society are pushing for improvement in the American educational system, many teachers experience job overload, isolation, and increasing despair. This book is the first in a trilogy designed to help teachers and principals fight for fundamentally positive changes that will benefit themselves and their…