The Washington State Board of Education (SBE) and the Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) submitted this 6th biennial joint report to the Governor, Legislative Education Committees, and Superintendent of Public Instruction. The report outlines the collaborative work of the Boards, highlights accomplishments, and provides goals and…

California and the nation are at the crossroads of a major shift in school accountability policy. At the state level, California's Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) encourages the use of multiple measures of school performance used locally to support continuous improvement and strategic resource allocation. Similarly, the federal Every…

The purpose of this paper is to share a description of the process used by Fort Hays State University (FHSU) as a self-study of the FHSU alternative certification program, known as Transition to Teaching. Team members used the Quality Indicators designed as a part of a Department of Education Transition to Teaching Grant called the KNOTtT Project.…

With Secretary Arne Duncan at the helm, the U.S. Department of Education is gradually--and sometimes quietly--chipping away at key parts of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act as states and districts demand more relief from the elusive goal that all students be what the law terms "proficient" in reading and math by 2014. The pressure on…

For better or worse, rankings shape public conceptions of collegiate quality. This paper reviews the history of rankings, analyzes what they represent, explores recent efforts to employ indicators in addition to institutional resources and reputation on which the most popular rankings are based, and evaluates the extent to which rankings serve…

Sierra Vista Elementary School is a Title I school located in south central Phoenix that serves 418 K-8 students, 90 percent of whom qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and live in homes where the primary language is not English. One-third of the student population is made up of English-language learners. Hispanic students make up 78 percent…

This study was aimed at assessing leadership effectiveness on service delivery at the University of Namibia and all its campuses throughout the country. The study was carried out during the month of February 2013. The methodology consisted of document analysis, interviews through face to face, video and tele-conferencing. Purposive sampling was…

Many studies point to potential unintended consequences of accountability systems such as when schools narrow their teaching to fixate on tested subjects. As a result, some states and districts in the USA have complemented the federal test-based accountability system with additional measures of educational practices to hold schools accountable on…

This study examines the efficacy and moderators of New York State interventions for schools in need of improvement under NCLB, including: (1) school transfer, (2) supplementary education service (3) corrective action, (4) planning for restructuring, and (5) restructuring. Despite the fact that schools in increasingly aggressive treatment groups…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a structural overview about indigenous approaches to learning in South East Asian countries, with a particular reference to education initiatives that have been operating in this region; and especially to investigate information and communication technologies (ICT) systems, in combination with…

The ranking of the United States in major international tests such as the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) is used as the driving force and rationale for the current educational reforms in the United…

The ACT College Readiness Benchmarks are the ACT® College Readiness Assessment scores associated with a 50% chance of earning a B or higher grade in typical first-year credit-bearing college courses. The Benchmarks also correspond to an approximate 75% chance of earning a C or higher grade in these courses. There are four Benchmarks, corresponding…

The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not the implementation of special education graduates' secondary transition plans by a team of supporters such as teachers, parents, administrators, and postsecondary mentors were well-constructed and in alignment with the graduates' high school curriculum and intended postsecondary goals, as…

The researcher developed a case study using a qualitative research methodology to describe the functions of a team of math teachers in a professional learning community in a Title 1 low performing high school that led to increased student achievement. The tenth-grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) mathematics results for the…

School leaders must ensure the schools meet U.S. federal and state guidelines; thereby increasing test scores, as stipulated by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandates (Sloan, 2007). Increased student achievement continues to be the focus of state education departments because the number of students graduating from high school decreased and…