Given the critical role that literacy plays in children's academic and personal development, policymakers have increasingly focused on policies related to early childhood literacy, particularly among poor and minority students. In this study, authors use a census of data from Arizona, a state with a large and growing population of traditionally…

Student learning measures have rapidly become common in teacher evaluation systems across the United States. Over half of the country's states have required, recommended, or identified "student learning objectives" (SLOs) as a measure of student growth for use in educator evaluation. Although SLO-type measures vary significantly in terms…

This paper looks at the issue of the quality of education in Yemen. It uses micro-data from TIMSS and from surveys conducted in underserved rural areas, as well as macro-level policy information from the System Assessment for Better Education Results (SABER) database. The analysis indicates that the availability of teachers and resources at…

Recent changes in European higher education have accompanied a strong desire and need by national ministries to have comparable data across institutions and a growing recognition from campus leaders that effective planning and decision-making requires reliable institutional data and analyses. This has induced changes and restructuring of duties…

California legislature made a policy change with Senate Bill (SB) 1644 (2000), shifting Cal Grant Programs to focus on entitlement; counter to the national trend of merit based grant programs. This article describes a study examining effectiveness and extent to which SB 1644 is meeting its legislative objectives: increase in higher education…

This paper considers how policy-led processes of education reform have reshaped the space in which to think about gender and literacy, both in England and elsewhere. In many jurisdictions, the discourse on quality in education now focuses almost exclusively on numerical outcomes, whether they derive from the school, and/or at local or national…

This study uses descriptive data from the U.S. Department of Education to examine the composition of the private school sector in localities with sizeable school choice programs. If existing school choice programs are attracting educational entrepreneurs and unlocking the potential of new school models, the authors should expect to see significant…

Teacher attrition is a significant problem facing schools, with a large percentage of teachers leaving the profession within their first few years. Given the need to retain high-quality teachers, research is needed to identify those teachers with higher retention rates. Using survival analyses and a large state dataset, researchers examined…

In this article, the authors tackle the question of whether the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act has affected student achievement since its enactment in 2002. They present new research that takes on the challenge of distinguishing the law's effects from the myriad other factors at work over the past eight years. The results suggest that its…

Students in the United States change schools often, and frequent changes are associated with poor outcomes along numerous dimensions. These moves occur for many reasons, including both promotional transitions between educational levels and nonpromotional moves. Promotional student mobility is less likely than nonpromotional mobility to suffer from…

This paper presents a two part analysis of social justice programs (SJPs) at state universities in the United States of America (USA). Two main questions are addressed: firstly, in Part I, "What might it take to develop a social justice program at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP)?" and secondly, in Part II, "Why do some universities have…

The No Child Left Behind Act increases pressure on schools and districts to use standardized state test data. Seeking to learn about the process of turning accountability data into actionable information, this paper presents findings from three case studies of small to medium sized school districts. The study examines the flow of state science…

A new study that analyzes the status of professional learning in the United States reveals that the nation is making some progress in providing increased support and mentoring for new teachers. But the study also reveals that the United States has moved backward in providing the vast majority of teachers with the kind of ongoing, intensive…

Education leaders across the country confront a growing challenge: too many students are not college ready when they leave high school. Although indicators exist to identify students at risk of dropping out of high school, few indicators of students' college readiness are currently in place, and few districts have linked indicators to practices…

The national imperative for increased postsecondary level completions has never been clearer. In order to remain competitive in an ever-changing global market, the United States must produce an educated workforce; one that is ready to lead and inspire a 21st century economy. Recognizing this urgency, the President, several foundations, policy…