What makes a leadership preparation program exemplary? All three exemplary programs featured in this special issue evidence strong learning orientations and more sustained improvement work in their pursuit of exemplary preparation. I therefore examine exemplary preparation from a process perspective that emphasizes continuous improvement. To help…

This study employed hierarchical piecewise growth modeling and two interrupted time series models to examine the effect of introducing an Advanced Placement (AP) school accountability incentive on AP access in Pennsylvania. Specifically, we examined whether adoption of an advanced course access accountability indicator was associated with an…

The purpose of this study was to describe how states in the REL Central Region (Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming) evaluate teacher preparation programs and planned changes for evaluation. Publicly available documents were reviewed and interviews were conducted with state education agency representatives…

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 "Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area" (ESG) were adopted by the Ministers responsible for higher education in 2005 following a proposal prepared by the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA) in cooperation with the European Students' Union (ESU), the…

Ethiopia is a large country in the Horn of Africa. It has a diverse population of eighty million people who speak over thirty distinct languages. Approximately 80% of the population live in rural areas and rely on subsistence agriculture. Despite economic growth and an abundance of natural resources, it is a country with a per-capita income of…

Striving to provide public good and maximize public value strike many as highly abstract and idealistic ideas. Written in the form of an interview, this article, written from the perspective of a practitioner, addresses some of the pragmatic issues that arise when trying to conceptualize approaches to museum offerings and demonstrate their…

This article demonstrates the value of theoretical ex-ante evaluation of policy programs. We show how a specific policy might not achieve its objectives and illustrate the elements of the policy, which need improvement. These conclusions are based on a reconstruction and evaluation of the theory behind a policy program that aims to increase…

Background/Context: As accountability pressures have mounted toward ever-higher targets under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, low-achieving schools have sought new tools for raising achievement. The association between parent involvement and student achievement is well established, though the association is an indirect relationship mediated…

A recent report published by the National Center on Performance Incentives (NCPI) presents findings from the second-year of a multi-year evaluation of the Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program, a statewide educator incentive program that operated in Texas. As part of this larger study, evaluators examined how participation in the TEEG…

In "Holding Accountability to Account: How Scholarship and Experience in Other Fields Inform Exploration of Performance Incentives in Education"--a paper presented at the National Center on Performance Incentives research to policy conference in February--Richard Rothstein, a research associate at the Economic Policy Institute, argues educational…

Quality is fast becoming a policy priority in states and localities around the country. As a result, formal and informal networks of youth organizations are seeking and developing strategies to help them assess and improve performance. This report takes a close look at efforts underway in three networks and provides a preliminary framework for…

The five papers in this symposium address several key issues included in evaluation research. In "Designing State Vocational Rehabilitation Agency Evaluation Research", Stanford E. Rubin discusses the importance of practitioner involvement in the development of research questions and plans and introduces three basic models of evaluative research.…

The concept of accountability in education has two primary concerns: the responsibility to provide effective educational programs and the responsibility to employ efficiently the resources allocated for this purpose. These concerns are fundamental to an evaluation procedure based on the principle of accountability. The establishment in 1967 of new…

This report describes and evaluates Title I, the largest federal aid program in elementary and secondary education, with appropriations of over $3 billion in 1980. It assesses the impact of the program and introduces new efforts that were undertaken to enhance state and local coordination. Special attention is given to how the amendments of 1974…