There are nearly one million credentials offered in the United States and approximately $1.9 trillion per year spent on education and training. Credential transparency enables stakeholders in learning and job ecosystems to explore and compare credentials in order to make better decisions about the best options for learning, advancement, and…

Measures of student growth offer a richer understanding of student performance than a moment-in-time test score alone, but measures of student growth are not created equal. In their accountability plans for implementing the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), some states are using a sophisticated analysis of multiple data points that evaluate the…

Under emerging policy structures in California, the responsibility for school improvement is increasingly placed upon local school districts, with County Offices of Education (COEs) playing a critical support role. In this system, districts are responsible for school improvement, with counties in charge of ensuring quality across districts and…

Experts have heralded domain-specific play-based curricula coupled with regular coaching and training as our "strongest hope" for improving instructional quality in large-scale public preschool programs. Yet, details from different evaluations of the strongest hope model are not systematically compiled, making it difficult to identify…

In a randomized controlled trial of a teacher data-use intervention, the Linking Study tested the impacts of a cyclical and collaborative process that linked teachers' data on instructional practice with data on their students' learning. This article describes the theory of the intervention and its roots in the literature as a backdrop for an…

Creating continuously improving education systems could be the antidote to one-off education reforms that come and go with little to show for the effort. What distinguishes continuous improvement from other reform strategies is its focus on the underlying architecture of the system that is producing undesirable outcomes (e.g., low graduation…

This dissertation examines the role of information in influencing both individuals' college outcomes and the productivity of a higher education system. It focuses in particular on large-scale educational reforms that raise different mechanisms than those in the existing literature on the returns to college attendance and college quality. (Abstract…

This is the epilogue to the special issue. The authors, two White House officials and policy experts, describe how negative narratives surrounding Black men and the misuse of data can manifest as barriers to high quality learning environments or workforce development opportunities.

Purpose/Objective: Under the reauthorized Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states and districts retain greater discretion over the measures included in school quality report cards. Moreover, ESSA now requires states to expand their measurement efforts to address factors like school climate. This shift toward more comprehensive measures of school…

College and career pathways represent a significant national educational reform movement supported by federal, state, and philanthropic funders. High school pathways combine career and technical education with rigorous academics, work-based learning, and student supports to provide equitable access to postsecondary opportunities. Strong research…

The theme of the "Outline of the National Mid- to Long-Term Plan for Education Reform and Development (2010-2020)" is building a nation rich in human resources, its primary thread is promoting the scientific development of education, and its soul is reform and innovation. The important concepts and policy innovations of the National…

Every student, no matter where he or she lives, deserves a great teacher. States, educator preparation programs (EPPs), and K-12 leaders must work together to ensure that all teachers are learner ready on day one in the classroom. But too often, these actors do not have access to the necessary information to fully prepare teachers for the unique…

This article reports the results of a nationwide questionnaire survey of 1,104 Japanese higher education institutions conducted in late 2015 and early 2016. Its goal was to investigate the current status and issues related to the utilization and disclosure of educational information. A total of 248 institutions responded to the survey. Based on…

This document records testimony from a hearing held to discuss higher education and transparency as Congress is working to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. Member statements were presented by: (1) Honorable Susan A. Rankin, Ranking Member, Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development; and (2) Honorable Brett Guthrie, Chairman,…

London schools continue to constitute an extraordinary "success story." By common consent, the government school system in London achieves extremely good results compared to the rest of England, and students from disadvantaged backgrounds do particularly well. In 2014, the authors sought to document and provisionally explain the London…