Education systems focus on issues related to school effects and differences. School effects are used as a basis for accountability in various countries including China. This study investigated the stability and cross-disciplinary consistency of value-added estimates based on student scores in selected schools in a city in central China. The…

California is taking a bold new approach to the evaluation of school performance, the provision of data to parents and educators, and the use of accountability to improve student learning. Broadly speaking, the state is stepping away from the consequential accountability that was compelled under No Child Left Behind and toward a system that relies…

Context: In the past two years, states have implemented sweeping reforms to their teacher evaluation systems in response to Race to the Top legislation and, more recently, NCLB waivers. With these new systems, policymakers hope to make teacher evaluation both more rigorous and more grounded in specific job performance domains such as teaching…

A primary focus of recent educational policymaking has been on improving measures of teaching effectiveness, attributable in part to recent federal policies such as the Race to the Top initiative and Investing in Innovation. To date, neither researchers nor practitioners have arrived at a consensus on the best methods for evaluating special…

A statewide survey of coordinators of inclusive high school service-learning programs was conducted to validate elements, methods, and barriers to including students with and without disabilities in service-learning. Surveys were mailed to 655 service-learning coordinators; 190 (29%) returned a completed survey. Findings support the validity of…

Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015 signaled a new era for teacher evaluation reform. Under ESSA, states and districts have greater autonomy to design and implement teacher evaluation systems independent of federal influence. This new flexibility brings with it new responsibilities and challenges for states and…

Debate is occurring about which result interpretation aides focused on examining the experimental effect should be used in single-subject experimental research. In this study, we examined seven nonoverlap methods and compared results using each method to judgments of two visual analysts. The data sources for the present study were 36 studies…

Regardless of how one might feel about the recent developments in teacher evaluation systems, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and adequate yearly progress (AYP), or student assessments for high-stakes promotion decisions, educators overwhelmingly agree that use of multiple measures is better than reliance on a single measure such as a large-scale,…

As educators move into a new era of educational reform, it becomes imperative that teachers use evidence-based instructional practices shown to be effective for students with disabilities. One area that plays a role in this process is secondary transition. The National Secondary Transition Technical Assistance Center has identified 63…

It has been 10 years since No Child Left Behind (NCLB), with its emphasis on scientifically based instruction as a means for improving the educational outcomes of students, was signed into law. In this article, we review the basic tenets of evidence-based practice as they apply to education as well as the progress that has been made in…

The passage of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act and the No Child Left Behind Act has highlighted the importance of all students having access to the general education curriculum. Because students with disabilities are being included in the general education classroom in greater numbers, teachers need to implement…

This research evaluated the psychometric properties of Friedman's (1999) Teacher Work-Autonomy Scale (TWA) to determine whether it was an acceptable instrument to measure U.S. teacher autonomy in the present educational context. A second purpose was to ascertain the current status of teachers' perceptions of their autonomy from a sample of U.S.…

Professional development is a necessary component of maintaining competency in professional practice. Technology has opened the door to new formats for delivering professional development, in addition to more traditional modes of training. This study compared three professional development formats for improving the quality of standards-based…

School-based prevention and promotion interventions (SBPPI) improve desirable outcomes (e.g., commitment to school and attendance) and reduce undesirable outcomes (e.g., suspensions and violence). Unfortunately, our understanding of how to effectively implement and sustain SBPPI outside of well-controlled conditions is lacking. To bridge this…

The purpose of this study was to determine if principal tenure, principal stability, and principal educational experience in public education along with school-level variables predicted elementary school student achievement. A second purpose was to examine whether there was a significant difference between (a) levels of principal tenure and levels…