To raise university research productivity, the government of Kazakhstan introduced a requirement for university faculty members to publish in journals with a nonzero impact factor in order to qualify for promotion. A survey of faculty members at six universities was conducted to explore their response to the policy. The results suggest that a…

Research revealed teachers are the most influential factor on student achievement and districts face their own unique set of challenges as they attempt to maintain a highly qualified teaching staff. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which Grow Your Own Teacher (GYOT) programs assist districts in meeting the demand…

Currently there are multiple teacher education reform policies being proposed, piloted, and debated at a variety of levels and by various interest groups, stakeholders, and policy-makers. Along with an unprecedented sense of urgency about these important goals, what most U.S. reforms have in common is increased accountability. Using a discourse…

In January Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, released two draft discussion bills to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA. The Student Success Act and the Encouraging Innovation and Effective Teachers Act would increase state and local control over education. In the…

This paper considers an alternative teacher certification pathway known as Teach for Australia (TFA) that is currently operating in the Australian state of Victoria. A discursive approach informed by critical theory is used in the paper to critically examine the specific case of TFA as an alternative teacher certification pathway charged with…

This book is about the threats to education quality in the developing world that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews the observed phenomenon of service delivery failures in public education: cases where programs and policies increase the inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts--in schools and…

In 2002/03, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools initiated a broad program of accelerating entry into algebra coursework. The proportion of moderately-performing students taking 8th grade algebra increased from less than half to nearly 90%, then reverted to baseline levels, in the span of just six age cohorts. We use this policy-induced variation to…

The SAS Educational Value-Added Assessment System (SAS[R] EVAAS[R]) is the most widely used value-added system in the country. It is also self-proclaimed as "the most robust and reliable" system available, with its greatest benefit to help educators improve their teaching practices. This study critically examined the effects of SAS[R] EVAAS[R] as…

We use a regression discontinuity strategy to produce causal estimates for the effect of remediation under Florida's test-based promotion policy on multiple outcomes for up to five years after the intervention. Students subjected to the policy were retained in the third grade, were required to be assigned to a high-quality teacher during the…

Since 2008 Texas's District Awards for Teacher Excellence (D.A.T.E.) program has provided grants to districts for the implementation of locally designed incentive pay plans. The 2010-11 school year is the third year of the D.A.T.E. incentive pay plans with approximately $197 million in annual state funding. This research brief summarizes the key…

This report explores the extent to which states (and several large cities) are positioned to provide high quality preschool education on a large scale. States and cities that are already doing so or that could do so with modest improvements offer opportunities for advocacy to advance access to high quality early education as well as for rigorous…

This literature review seeks to find if the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 has produced more qualified teachers since before its enactment. The impact of the NCLB on student achievement and teacher quality needs have been examined since there have been 10 years after the law was enacted. Only 11% reported that the NCLB highly qualified…

Because classroom size reduction (CSR) and standards based testing were implemented at the same time in California during the mid-1990s, it is difficult to isolate the effects of classroom size on outcomes from the effects of curriculum changes. As a result, the main comparison in this paper is very specific--the effect of reduced sized…

This paper provides a review of recent policy initiatives to reform teacher compensation systems and evidence regarding the effect of these policies. The first section examines the current structure of teacher compensation in the U.S. K-12 public education system. The compensation "system" for teachers is fragmented and uncoordinated. Teacher…

The Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program was state-funded and provided annual grants to schools to design and implement performance pay plans during the 2006-07 to 2009-10 school year. TEEG was implemented each year (i.e., Cycle) in approximately 1,000 high poverty, high performing Texas public schools. Performance pay for teachers…