This paper examines the options available to states to redefine their accountability systems as they begin to implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The new law provides the possibility that states can create more balanced systems of support and accountability focused on educating young people so they can become productive, engaged…

This article presents the author's reflection on his experiences of teacher evaluation implemented in South Africa and his interest in researching this contentious topic in South Australia. He is of the opinion that his research will serve as a source of knowledge generation to teachers with respect to: a) "greater personal, professional and…

There is agreement that teaching practices should be responsive to the cultural identities of their students, but less clarity regarding both the specifics of culturally responsive pedagogies and effective strategies for implementing them in classrooms across the curriculum. A mixed-methods research approach evaluated the impact of teacher…

While networking is becoming an increasingly popular school improvement strategy with high levels of success, there is little research that shows the challenges school leaders face as they enter into these new relationships. This article supplements current literature by providing documentation and analysis of some internal leadership…

Teacher education and continuing professional development have become key areas of controversy in England since the period of school-sector restructuring following the 1988 Education Reform Act. More recently, teacher training and professional development have often been used to promote and reinforce a narrow focus on the government's…

Since its election in 1997 the Labour government's policy has sought to promote a "new professionalism" amongst teachers. First mooted at the time when new performance management arrangements were introduced, the discourse of new professionalism has now become closely associated with the "workforce remodeling" agenda in which…

In the first part of this paper, conceptions of trainee teachers are defined, together with their importance for the process of teacher education. Many studies concerning teacher conceptions and models of teacher development show that the conceptions of instruction, knowledge, and teacher and learner roles are a key part of the teacher's…

Inside High School Reform: Making Changes that Matter (WestEd) shares the critical lessons and compelling successes of 28 California Academic Partnership Program school reform efforts. In this interview, lead author Jordan Horowitz, WestEd's senior project director in evaluation research, recently shared some of the book's findings, and answered…

The headteacher's role in school improvement and the changing nature of the role suggest the need to investigate how new school leaders learn their jobs, that is, their socialization to the leader role. This study has two purposes: (1) to identify the content and methods used in the professional and organizational socialization experiences of new…

The papers in this special issue view teachers and their ongoing development as central to Canada's educational restructuring efforts. This introductory article presents snapshots of the Canadian educational system, teachers' professional lives and careers, and Canadian teacher education strategies and briefly examines the policy-making…

Proposes a 10-criteria classification framework, derived from current literature, to capture the characteristics of the design, leadership, and implementation of school improvement programs in the United Kingdom. Uses the classification frame to analyze the design model adopted by the secondary school in the case study. Draws conclusions about the…

Explosive changes in social, demographic, economic, and ideological factors in America require public education to respond with its own changes to assure competent citizens for the 21st century. School psychologists play an active role in school reform. Too frequently, school psychologists have been limited to testing to the exclusion of other…

This book, the 14th yearbook of the American Education Finance Association (AEFA), provides a review and appraisal of the "educational perestroika" that has occurred over the past decade, both in the United States and in other developed countries. Rather than assessing the outcomes of a decade of educational reform, it examines the present and…

Significant changes have occurred in education and the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) in Australian and New Zealand schools in the years since the publication of "Learning in an online world: the school education action plan for the information economy" (2000). These reflect inter-related developments in: (1)…

Collaborative school cultures have been associated with achieving various school reform objectives for both teachers and students. One central dimension of school restructuring is the empowerment of teachers within a school culture that is both shared and technical. Little is known about how such cultures develop and whether or how school…