This study applies a bioecological lens to the examination of school change in the area of classroom assessment. We conducted a case study that examined the processes within a rural secondary school that supported and inhibited change in classroom assessment practices. Data collection included teacher and principal interviews, focus groups,…

Background: This article critically discusses the key tensions and challenges arising from the educational policy borrowing in China, through its current education reform. Focussing on the new curriculum reform (NCR), the paper highlights the interactions and conflicts between foreign and local ideologies and practices. Sources of evidence: The…

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to examine the utility of framing formative feedback to improve school leadership with a focus on task-based evaluation of distributed leadership rather than on role-based evaluation of an individual leader. Research Methods/Approach: Using data from research on the development of the Comprehensive…

Purpose: The Comprehensive Assessment of Leadership for Learning (CALL) is an online task-based assessment of distributed instructional leadership. In developing CALL, researchers faced the challenge of structuring survey items that would measure leadership practice rather than individual traits. Critical in this work was developing items that…

The National Association of Secondary School Principals' Selecting and Developing the 21st Century Principal program is a formative assessment identifying skills linked to effective leadership, and it is based on a simulation designed to replicate a school principal's day. The Long Island School Leadership Center became a site for this program in…

In this study, the researcher sought to determine whether Nebraska teachers and administrators agreed about what constitutes sound grading practice. The results of this study indicated that Nebraska teachers and administrators working in public schools in 7th-12th grade settings did not always agree about what constituted sound grading practice.…

This document includes four papers presented at a symposium, based on a synthesis of five years of research--on the interaction of role groups and factors in the change process that are critical for school improvement in elementary and secondary schools. The papers identify elements of the change process crucial for the success of proposed changes…