In this article, I aim to analyze the perceptions regarding excellence shared by students of high-performing public schools in Santiago de Chile and simultaneously to reflect on the way in which they experience it, inside and outside of school. Through the analysis of 24 focus groups conducted in six schools, I conclude that students share…

We report on the implementation experience of carrying out data collection and other activities for a public health evaluation study on whether U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) investment improved utilization of health services and health system strengthening in Uganda. The retrospective study period focused on the PEPFAR…

The accountability pressures of the recent decade require that instructional leaders work with teachers to ensure student academic success. The "walkthrough" or "walkthrough observation" is an instructional leadership practice that has been regarded as a promising avenue to collaboratively work with teachers. This exploratory…

The role of teacher assistants has paralleled the changes in education over the years. The teacher assistants, who numbered 1.3 million in 2008 and are projected to increase by 10 percent by 2018 (Office of Labor Statistics, 2012) are valuable members of our educational communities providing support to students with special needs. These teacher…

The purpose of this study was to investigate if students are prepared to release any personal data in order to inform learning analytics systems. Besides the well-documented benefits of learning analytics, serious concerns and challenges are associated with the application of these data driven systems. Most notably, empirical evidence regarding…

The study aims to gain a better understanding of the national large-scale curriculum process in terms of the used implementation strategies, the function of the reform, and the curriculum coherence perceived by the stakeholders accountable in constructing the national core curriculum in Finland. A large body of school reform literature has shown…

As the quality of educational outputs has been problematized, accountability systems have driven reform based upon summative assessment data. These policies impact the ways that educators use data within schools and subsequently, how teacher education programs may adjust their curricula to teach data-driven decision-making to inform instruction.…

The accountability movement in education and the development of the American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model encourages school counselors to evaluate the effectiveness of their school counseling program based on student achievement. This study surveyed Wisconsin elementary school counselors to determine their use of…

The exploratory study sought to examine the relationships between teachers' self-efficacy beliefs and professional learning community. Specifically, this study presents a quantitative analysis of the relationship between teachers' perceptions of self-efficacy and PLC implementation. The Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) (long form)…

The purpose of the study was to collect data to determine if assistant principal experience predicts student achievement as measured by the outcome measures of (1) school overall accountability rating, (2) Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) reading/English language arts score, (3) TAKS mathematics score, and (4) campus attendance rate…

Assessing the quality of undergraduate student learning continues to be a priority in U.S. postsecondary education. Although variations in outcome assessment practices have long been suspected, they have not been systematically documented. To follow up the 2009 National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) report on institutional…

Some methodological issues are discussed that arise from our comparative research conducted since the early 1990s into primary schooling in Finland and England. This research has been identified as part of a "new" comparative education that uses qualitative research strategies and which prioritises sensitivity to cultural context in data…

The evaluation of instructional television (ITV) is a new field with evaluation methods largely borrowed from other disciplines. The evaluator is not apt to be trained specifically in this area but will learn "on the job" while defining his role for those with whom he works. The evaluator should consider the following recommendations: (1)…

Discusses Edina School District's School Profiles composed of multiple indicators from student achievement assessment results, school demographic data, and survey responses. Focuses on student, staff, and parent surveys, and shows how the surveys were developed, presented, and used by the schools to support comprehensive and ongoing efforts to…

The Kentucky Tech Prep Evaluation system was developed to establish and maintain a database and data analysis for assessment of the effectiveness of tech prep programs in achieving specific goals and in helping schools improve cognitive and noncognitive performance as reflected in the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS)…