In an era of heightened accountability and limited fiscal resources, school districts have sought novel ways to increase the effectiveness of their principals in an effort to increase student proficiency. To address these needs, some districts have turned to pay-for-performance programs, aligning leadership goals with financial incentives to…

Exhibitions are public demonstrations of mastery that occur at culminating moments, such as at the conclusion of a unit of study, the transition from one level of schooling to the next, and graduation. Exhibitions require students to speak publicly, use evidence, present engaging visual displays, and otherwise demonstrate mastery to educators,…

This article reports on the outcomes from the "e-scape Primary Scientific and Technological Understanding Assessment Project" (2009-2010), which aimed to support primary teachers in developing valid portfolio-based tasks to assess pupils' scientific and technological enquiry skills at age 11. This was part of the wider…

The Pilot schools Experiential Education Demonstration (PSEED) project was intended to deepen and embed high-quality experiential education within each participating school's academic programs. A continuation of a multiyear set of initiatives by the Barr Foundation, PSEED was an effort to unify the foundation's content area foci on arts,…

The increasing emphasis on accountability in early care and education has created an opportunity for programs to revisit their child assessment practices. This article presents a model for using authentic assessment practices to document children's progress toward a set of program standards, specifically the Head Start Child Outcomes Framework, as…

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the Teacher Performance Rate and Accuracy Scale (TPRA) which is a method of direct teacher observation used in the teacher evaluation and training component of the Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS [R]) model of schooling. The TPRA builds on the concept of academic engaged…

A Sacramento district developed a strategic plan designed to promote responsibility and lift people up. At least 9 out of 10 students must meet rigorous performance standards by 2001. Accountability is embedded in good instruction, curriculum alignment, instructional materials, staff development, and core beliefs and trust. (MLH)

This is a comprehensive text about beliefs, issues, and practices at the forefront of literacy education--language, ethnic, and academic diversity; authentic assessment; and social construction of meaning and knowledge--explored through the lens of a cohesive instructional design, the Book Club Program. It presents a pedagogical model based on a…

This report describes Kentucky's Primary School Program, which was developed after the signing of the Kentucky Education Reform Act in 1990. An overview of the report explains the philosophy of the program and lists its critical attributes. These are: (1) developmentally appropriate practices; (2) multi-age classrooms; (3) continuous progress; (4)…