Given that standards-based education has been commonplace since the early 1980's, most practicing education professionals cannot remember a time where standards did not exist. Standards have historically served as a mechanism for accountability and academic achievement. In physical education, while not required in initial educational reforms, the…

Recent state legislative developments have brought accreditation to the forefront of public higher education conversations. Some accreditation critics state that accreditors have too much influence in higher education suggesting that their efforts may affect institutional autonomy and that they are allegedly structured as legalized monopolies…

Principals are confronted with an exceptional degree of difficult decisions. One of the key challenges that school principals are facing in many parts of the world today is how to maintain a balance between professional discretion and accountability with the legislative and policy framework in which they must perform their duties. Every judgement…

Across the country, charter schools now serve a diverse student body of 3.7 million students in nearly 8,000 charter schools and family demand for charter schools continues to grow. The Charter Schools Program (CSP) is the only source of federal funding that supports the growth of charter schools to meet this community need, but the CSP has been…

This report analyzes the evolution and effectiveness of standards-based reforms in U.S. education. Starting from the increased federal involvement with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965 to the Goals 2000 launch of more recent reforms, the document explores the role of state governments in implementing systemic reforms aimed at…

In this paper, the concepts of fabrication, subjectivation and performativity are mobilised in an analysis of varied exclusionary practices in England's schools with particular reference to "off-rolling", defined by the national school inspectorate as the illegal removal of a student from a school roll in order to enhance academic…

In "Going the Distance," Lora Bartlett, Alisun Thompson, Judith Warren Little, and Riley Collins examine the professional conditions that support career commitment among K-12 educators--and the factors that threaten teacher retention. Drawing insight from the period of significant teacher turnover and burnout both during and beyond…

In 2015, President Obama signed the reauthorization of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), a significant United States education policy. ESSA replaced the No Child Left Behind Act, preserving certain aspects of standardized testing while introducing newfound flexibility for states and local educational agencies in shaping their accountability…

Outstanding federal student loan debt exceeds $1.6 trillion and is owed by approximately 45 million borrowers. Thus, a policy to broadly cancel federal student loan debt would directly apply to a discrete segment of the U.S. population. Cancelling some amount of federal student loan debt would alleviate loan repayment burdens for qualifying…

The Innovation Schools Act of 2008, § 22-32.5-102, et seq. C.R.S., was designed to provide a pathway for schools and districts to develop and implement innovative practices in a wide variety of areas and contexts to improve student outcomes. The Act provides a formal process that allows schools or groups of schools to make requests to their local…

Existing analytic frameworks used to analyze and report on English learner (EL) students have important limitations that complicate the efforts of policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to fully understand this group's experiences and outcomes and respond accordingly. To address this issue, we argue that education agencies should report and…

Career Technical Education (CTE) and career readiness have become a national priority, reshaping high school curricula across the country. Once primarily centered on college preparation, college and career readiness now emphasizes career pathways as a key component of learner success, with 43 states including at least one career-focused indicator…

The school system in England has undergone significant change following the introduction of the academies policy and the subsequent mass conversion of secondary schools to academies. In this article we address two issues arising from this process of academisation, namely equality of opportunity and local democratic accountability, both of which…

Results-based school accountability has been the linchpin of education reform in the United States for at least two decades. But the COVID-19 pandemic led many schools, states, and districts to put their testing and accountability programs on hold. Chester E. Finn, Jr., argues that it is time for the accountability holiday to end and makes…

This brief is organized into four (4) main sections. We first discuss the inadequacy, inefficacy, and bias of standardized, high-stakes assessments. These assessments do not deliver on promises made by proponents and that they, in fact, do long-term harm to teachers and students, with a disproportionate negative impact on communities of color. The…