Every state has different laws that govern its charter schools, which makes a consistent definition of charter schools a little more difficult. However, the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools website (www.publiccharters.org) notes that definitions of charter schools in most states generally share these characteristics: (1) They are…

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship of Arkansas and Louisiana district conversion and open-enrollment charter school principals' background characteristics, leadership skills, and school success. A quantitative methodology was used to test the research questions prescribed in the study. Data was collected using a survey. The…

Organizational health refers to an organization's ability to achieve its goals based on an environment that seeks to improve organizational performance and support student and employee well-being. Organizational health is conceptualized in terms of three levels, namely, the technical, managerial, and institutional which combine to create a healthy…

"Getting It Done" describes in clear and helpful detail what leaders of successful high-poverty and high-minority schools have done to promote and sustain student achievement. It follows two celebrated books by Karin Chenoweth: "It's Being Done," which established that the work of educating all children is possible, and "How It's Being Done,"…

Following Snow's (1973) description of an "inductive" process of theory formation, this article addresses the organization of the knowledge base on school effectiveness. A multilevel presentation stimulated the conceptualization of educational effectiveness as an integration of system-level, school-level, and classroom-level…

Introduction: Studies of school effect usually evolve around two major issues; understanding of the factors within schools that explain variation in students achievement levels, and how differences among schools account for the variation in their students' achievement levels. Given the limited studies of school effect research in South Africa,…

In this commentary 26-year Ontario district teacher, Jeff Stickney, begins by surveying balanced approaches to large- and small-scale education reforms: contrasting linear alignment with more complex ecological models, drawing on recent work by Andy Hargreaves (2008; Hargreaves & Shirley, 2012). Next, through a brief case study of School…

The objective of this paper is to present value-added calculation methods that were applied to determine whether online schools performed at the same or different levels relative to standardized testing. This study includes information on how we approached our value added model development and the results for 32 online public high schools in…

This article discusses the characteristics of rural versus nonrural principals in the High Plains states. It is based on data from the Schools and Staffing Survey, examining the differences in preparation and experience and the extent to which characteristics of the rural principalship (perceptions of autonomy, workload, etc.) predicted retention.…

Academic schools are a prominent feature of the educational landscape in England. Introduced in 2002, they are funded directly from central government and have become a major policy driver to reform the school system and increase educational attainment. Academies count for 60 percent of secondary schools and 13 percent of primaries. This report…

Motivated by the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, all states operate accountability systems that measure and report school and student performance annually. The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of interim assessments on the achievement gap. The authors examine the impact of interim assessments throughout the…

Over the last eight years, the University of Virginia Partnership for Leaders in Education (UVA/PLE) has partnered with over 50 districts and state education agencies across the country to embark on high-level change at the state, district, and school levels through the use of leader competencies. This guide calls upon practice-based experience,…

Literature suggested that the mandated filtering required by the Children's Internet Protection Act of 2000 adversely affected the educational system. The literature stated that schools imposed more restrictive filtering than the Act mandated. School systems had the responsibility to ensure that children learn to read, write, and perform…

In 2008 New Mexico changed its graduation requirements for regular education high school students who completed more than their senior year of high school in a New Mexico public school. Students who entered high school in 2009 were the first to have to complete (pass with a D or better) at least one advanced course (a course designated by the New…

Rhode Island's School Accountability system is in a period of transition to the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The accountability data released October 2017 is based on the 2016-17 administration of the PARCC assessment. Results from the Multi-State Alternate Assessment in ELA/literacy and mathematics are also included. The results of this…