For decades, America's K-12 public schools have struggled with closing the achievement gap between black and brown students and their white counterparts. High-poverty schools with high percentages of students of color are often low-performing schools. These marginalized populations of students lack equitable access to the rigorous academic…

The political schooling emphasis on fixed fiscal input and improved student outcomes constitutes a significant challenge for practitioners who are held accountable for the quality of education provision. Professional learning and development (PLD) is a key policy lever for shifting practice in schools and driving philosophical change. In recent…

This qualitative study examines how accountability policies impact school principals' social justice commitment. The study involved semi-structured interviews with twenty-two Ontario principals. Findings show that principals responded to the accountability policies with strikingly mixed emotions. Some grudgingly accepted the mandates and…

Secondary education provides a vital link between basic education and the world of work, on one hand, and further training on the other. It is therefore an important sub-sector of education in the preparation of human capital for development and provision of life opportunities. Secondary education in Kenya takes four years to complete, catering…

Introduction: The purpose of the paper is to explore the ways in which visual methods can increase the quality of qualitative information behaviour research. Methods: The paper examines Tracy's framework of eight criteria for research quality: worthy topic, rich rigour, sincerity, credibility, resonance, significant contribution, ethical issues…

Perceived shortage of principals, increased accountability demands, the changing role of principals, and the growing influence of the state over school administration have created a set of challenges for principal certification and licensure that have propelled a renewed need for analysis of certification and licensure processes. Recent calls to…

From 2006 to 2008, Educational Testing Service (ETS) produced a series of reports titled "A Culture of Evidence," designed to capture a changing climate in higher education assessment. A decade later, colleges and universities already face new and different challenges resulting from societal, technological, and scientific influences.…

The article argues that there is no single globalisation of education systems, but rather multiple globalisations of each system taken in its individual context. We propose three explanatory factors to account for these vernacular globalisation processes, that is, for individual policy trajectories in each national context: path dependence on…

Given widespread acceptance of the role of teaching in improving student outcomes, it is not surprising that policy makers have turned to teaching standards as a lever for educational improvement. There are, however, long-standing critiques of standards that suggest they are reductionist and promote a dualism between theory and practice. Our…

There is an absence of observation-based tools designed to evaluate teaching in special education classrooms. Evaluations derived from classroom observations are integral to the accountability process, adding value to understanding teaching and learning by providing a lens into the classroom that test scores cannot capture. The present paper…

In early 2017, Congress rescinded two education regulations passed late in the Obama administration. The first regulation, which attempted to define and implement the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), received most of attention since states were busy planning how to implement the new law in the 2017-2018 school year. However the second regulation…

This paper explores the impact of external accountability on four mechanisms of network-internal quality control and the properties of (mandated) inter-organizational networks. An explorative case study approach examines the external accountability of a newly established educational network (MAT) and how schools and the Trust are held accountable…

In this paper, we discuss some concerns and recommendations of Saultz and Fusarelli (2017), offering nuanced and detailed views of online schooling from a different perspective. This includes addressing challenges regarding online learning such as fluctuating enrollments, financial concerns, quality assurance, and accountability. In addition, we…

In a context of increasing demand for quality and equity in education and a sharp focus on accountability, classroom teachers are also expected to support and improve learning outcomes for pupils in response to their individual needs. This paper explores three issues: how teachers understand assessment in relation to their students' learning, the…

The goal of this study was to investigate New York State's Annual Professional Performance Review (APPR) from the perspectives of secondary science teachers and their administrators. Examining their perceptions through interviews was insightful due to the subjects' proximity to the teaching and learning processes. Five science…