Educators, researchers, and policy makers concerned about college under-enrollment among underserved groups of students have traditionally focused reform efforts at the high school level. Over the last several decades, however, there has been a growing interest in improving college readiness beginning at the elementary level. Recently, the…

Blended learning, which combines independent online work with in-person group sessions, can support educator development while promising time-savings, flexibility, learner autonomy, and ease of use -- all without sacrificing program quality. Indeed, two decades of peer-reviewed studies of in-person, online, and blended instruction have…

State K-12 assessments may soon include measures for college readiness, as California's already do. We seek to understand how California's Early Assessment Program (EAP, designed to assess high school juniors' college readiness in English and math) may have influenced overall school-level college readiness and state accountability outcomes. Using…

Secondary schools have managed significant changes in the Key Stage 4 curriculum they offer in response to changes in performance tables and accountability measures from 2010 onwards. In this piece, the authors assess how these changes are starting to affect the educational choices and successes of pupils at the ages of 16 and 18. This is…

The Career and Technical Education (CTE) playbook series has explored strategies and processes states can use to strengthen CTE program quality and provide students with pathways to postsecondary credentialing and middle- and higher wage career opportunities. In the first three CTE Playbooks, ExcelinEd provided a high-level view of how states can…

This dissertation is a program evaluation of an apprenticeship program operated by Siemens Energy, Inc. in Charlotte, North Carolina. The evaluation was based on Stufflebeam's CIPP model of context (C), input (I), process (P), and product (P). The CIPP sought to evaluate (C) current and future objectives, (I) various strategies use to achieve the…

The Common Core is at a critical juncture. While many surveys show that support for the standards themselves remains strong, implementation has not been without major challenges. "State Accountability in the Transition to Common Core," a new policy brief from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, provides cautionary advice about what key…

Dilemmas abound in the design, implementation, analysis, and interpretation of the outcomes of a summative performance assessment of teaching when used for licensing, for individual and program evaluation, and for accountability purposes. In this article, we explore the impact of the Performance Assessment for California Teachers (PACT) on the…

TAP™: The System for Teacher and Student Advancement was launched in 1999 as a comprehensive educator effectiveness model to offer career advancement and leadership opportunities for educators, a fair and transparent evaluation process linked to job-embedded professional development and performance-based compensation, which culminate in improved…

The Early Learning Challenge (ELC) program awarded more than $1 billion in four-year grants to 20 States to implement comprehensive and cohesive high-quality early learning systems that support young children with high needs and their families. A key lever in making these improvements was the enhancement of States' Quality Rating and Improvement…

Based largely on interviews with stakeholders in California, New York, Tennessee, and West Virginia, this report describes how these states have established initiatives related to early college readiness assessments and transition curricula. It then compares the development of these interventions across states and identifies factors that have…

The purpose of this paper is to help countries understand some of the "key principles and characteristics of an effective student assessment system". The focus is on assessment of student learning and achievement at the K-12 level. The paper extracts principles and guidelines from countries' experiences, professional testing standards,…

Scotland, in common with many other countries internationally, has paid considerable attention to the development of assessment for learning. Currently, schools in Scotland are engaged in a major programme of curriculum and assessment reform, entitled Curriculum for Excellence. As part of the reform process, there is concern amongst practitioners,…

This brief studies California's introduction of the Early Assessment Program to bridge the gap between K-12 educational standards and postsecondary education requirements, similar to the Common Core State Standards movement.

Portfolio analysis is a simple yet powerful management tool. Programs and activities are placed on a grid with mission along one axis and financial return on the other. The four boxes of the grid (low mission, low return; high mission, low return; high return, low mission; high return, high mission) help managers identify which programs might be…