Context: Urban school districts have gone through countless reform efforts to no avail. The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (ESE) has developed a model that has the potential to be a game changer in laying the foundation for student success. Purpose: This article explores how one district used the model and targeted…

The purpose of this paper is to report findings from an exploratory study of the early implementation of the Common Core Learning Standards in New York City by a sample of charter management organizations (CMOs) and Children First Networks (CFNs). Using the existing literature on policy implementation--specifically the concepts of boundary…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of Charter School system in Turkey, which was opened firstly in State of Minnesota of United States and was expanded to approximately 40 states in America today and also, in practice in some countries such as Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway. Charter Schools are…

This quantitative report presents parents' views of school choice, local accountability, and academy schools. The survey was conducted in December 2014 and January 2015 with a representative sample of 1,005 parents of children aged 5-18 in England. Samples selected included 50% male and 50% female respondents from across England. Other variables…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act has provided services for English Language Learners (ELLs) since 1968. In 2010 nearly 4.6 million students were classified as ELLs and of those nearly 80% were from a Spanish speaking background. To ignore their education is to neglect preparing a large portion of our nation's future workforce. Given…

Earning college credit in high school matters to students and parents. Students who earn college credits by taking a college-level course while in high school are more likely to enter college and succeed. Through these experiences, students become familiar with college expectations, academic behaviors, and habits of mind; get a head start on…

For more than two decades, states have been required to report publicly on the academic performance of schools and districts. These school rating systems have received increased public attention amid growing concerns about the prevalence and cost of standardized testing in schools. According to a recent Gallup Poll, 64 percent of the public…

High School graduation rates are key indicators of accountability for high schools and school districts in Oregon. Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) implemented the cohort method of calculating graduation rates. The cohort method identifies the year the student entered high school for the first time…

Fraternity members are exposed to developmental opportunities through service, leadership, and involvement, guided by organizational values. The purpose of this study was to learn more about how members interpret their experiences in relation to civic values. Data sources were responses from essays (n = 196) written by graduate and undergraduate…

Management by Objective through Open Performance Review and Appraisal System (OPRAS) was introduced in Tanzania for evaluation of public servants work performance in 2004. The aim of this study was to investigate how teachers perceive the implementation of OPRAS as a mechanism of assessing their work performance and making them accountable for…

Both the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and recent efforts to hold schools and teachers accountable have been hotly debated among practitioners, policymakers, and the public at large. Much of the debate centers on the merits and demerits of these initiatives and the general approach they represent to reforming teaching and learning. In this…

Little research has examined preservice teachers' views on tenure and accountability. This study used a 35-item survey to investigate 89 preservice teachers' attitudes toward both. Most valued tenure and recognized the importance of ensuring teacher quality. Fewer than one third saw mentoring or collaboration as ways to improve their…

Many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries publish school rankings annually, based on the aggregated student performance of different schools in the (high-stakes) board examinations. The literature cites two reasons in favour of the public availability of information on school performance: first, the highly valued…

The research explores the views of teachers about how their teaching is evaluated by others. The tensions between evaluations motivated by the drive to improve practice (school self-evaluation) and evaluation related to external accountability (external evaluation-inspection) are considered, linked to findings and ideas reported in the literature.…

Utilizing "assemblage," a notion associated with Actor-Network Theory (ANT), we explore what discourses of transparency can, and cannot, accomplish in a network of education reform that includes schools, government agencies, and community organizations. Drawing on data collected between July 2011 and March 2013 in an…