Educational reform is at the forefront of legislatures and school districts across the United States (Hattie, 2011). To find and employ high school improvement initiatives that lead to improved educational experiences for students, educational leaders must examine in great detail what systems have been successful and then modify the initiatives to…

Serious games and game-based learning have received increased attention in recent years as an adjunct to teaching and learning material. This has been well echoed in the literature with numerous articles on the use of games and game theory in education. Despite this, no policy for the incorporation of serious games in education exists to date.…

Community schools are receiving increased attention in Pennsylvania and across the country as policymakers and practitioners strive to address the effects of poverty on academic performance, and provide more comprehensive supports for traditionally-underserved populations. While many advocates and education leaders tout the promise of community…

The article explores the intersection of equity goals and language ideologies within a dual language bilingual education (DLBE) language policy context. We present two DLBE teachers, Karina and Marisol, and explore their language ideologies and professional conviction towards equitable learning opportunities for their students. We investigate how…

Propelled by many factors, including a newly appointed Board of Trustees responsible for governance of our university, resource shortages, and enrollment swings, Portland State University embarked on a strategic planning effort in 2014 with the intent of reunifying a divided campus and creating a bold vision for moving forward in the next five…

There is a growing body of research that suggests the first year of high school is a critical transition point for students. It also finds course-taking and successful completion of those courses in 9th grade to be valuable predictors of students' success in high school. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides states an opportunity to…

Helping to make vocational education and training (VET) fit for future challenges while meeting those of today: this principle best encapsulates Cedefop's work and achievements in 2018. Policy discourse throughout the year reflected the growing recognition that devising employment, social and education and training policies in different silos is…

State accountability systems have been a primary school reform initiative in the US for the past 20 years, but often produce unintended negative consequences. In 2004, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) implemented the Performance Based Monitoring and Analysis System (PBMAS), which included an accountability indicator focused on the percentage of…

Is the Common Core really "dead"? Though no longer called the Common Core in our three study states, the "new" college-and-career readiness standards still guide much of education policy in Texas, Ohio, and Kentucky. In our new feature article in "Educational Researcher," lead author Dr. Laura Desimone, along with…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) began to take form when dozens of educators from across the country were led by governors and chief state school officers in gathering and reviewing the academic standards of states that had the best outcomes. Their goal was to determine what the current best academic standards were in the country and then…

As state and federal policymakers continue to adopt more centralized policies, it is increasingly important to understand how policies, particularly those designed to enhance education for underserved students, are implemented locally. We employ a mixed-methods sequential explanatory design to investigate the implementation of one policy, that…

This paper reviews reforms related to English language teaching in the Malaysian education system. It begins by tracing the history of Malaysia as a former British colony which has had significant influences on the status of English in the country. Then, it reviews the key educational reforms which have mainly centred on language policy, thus…

This paper deploys some concepts from the work of Michel Foucault to problematise the mundane and quotidian "practices" of policy translation as these occur in the everyday of schools. In doing that, we suggest that these "practices" are complicit in the formation of and constitution of teacher subjects, and their subjection to…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative (Common Core) was spearheaded by policy entrepreneurs, unveiled nationally in 2010, and initially received strong support from leaders in state and federal government, philanthropic foundations, the business sector, and teacher unions. However, the reform came into the crosshairs of an ideologically wide…

The Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) has been widely adopted in schools of higher education across the United States. Different state education departments have set policies, to varying degrees, that determine the outcomes for passing the edTPA, with some requiring a passing score to obtain licensure. As a result of the high-stakes nature of…