Value-added indicators are now a central part of school accountability in England, and value-added information is routinely used in school improvement at both the national and the local levels. This article describes the value-added models that are being used in the academic year 2007-8 by schools, parents, school inspectors, and other…

Contemporary models of action research that are complementary to and in some cases promoted in UK Government policy tend to follow a loosely scientific methodology. They are reductionist in character and work on the assumption that linear processes of balanced interaction between causes and effects enables the practitioner to make controlled…

Wonderful schools do not simply have to be imagined. Phenomenal examples of education going right for children exist in the United States. These schools are serving all populations of children and families. What becomes clear, even with schools that appear quite different from one another, is that common themes emerge across effective schools and…

After generating months of anxiety among both proponents and opponents of public-school integration, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a predictably close 5-4 decision, ruled that the use of race in student-assignment policies by the Seattle and Louisville, Kentucky, school districts violated the rights of the white petitioners whose children were denied…

"The Achiever" is a monthly publication for parents and community leaders. Each issue contains news and information about school improvement in the United States. Highlights of this issue include: (1) "Promising Gains" among Urban School Districts: Nation's Report Card Reveals Greatest Increases in Math; (2) Tying Names to…

Theoretically, higher education professionals agree that public trusteeship matters, yet little attention is given to the influence trustees have on the performance of public higher education. This study examines the relationship between selection and appointment processes and state higher education performance. Findings show that top-performing…

This paper compares two celebrated studies--New York City Community School District 2 (Elmore & Burney, 1999), and "Good to Great" (Collins, 2001), which examined sustained success in American corporations--to the case of a single high-performing school district. The question of interest concerns how school districts achieve and…

International education involves a dichotomy of study between the largely theoretical discipline of comparative education, and the still relatively under-researched body of international schools. The last 40 years has seen the rapid growth both in scale and diversity of this type of school, plus the emergence of a discrete industry. This dimension…

This article asks whether a school improvement programme in three provinces in Canada could have any implications for schools in England. Based on experience in a failing school that "turned around", a key feature of the programme was its emphasis on developing respectful social relationships at the same time as strengthening the…

This study was based on the Cyprus data from both the student questionnaire and the tests of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), undertaken in 2001 under the auspices of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The sample included 3,001 fourth-grade students from Cyprus, whose…

West Springfield High School sits on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., in Fairfax County, Virginia. WSHS is home to a thriving and growing technology education program. In recent years, the program has exploded from less than 175 students to well over 425. These numbers are expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future. In 2002, the…

In this essay, Benjamin Baez and Susan Talburt analyze the U.S. Department of Education's Helping Your Child Series to consider how the government of children, families, and schools reflects a concern with two seemingly unrelated political objectives of neoliberal projects: creating responsible, self-reliant citizens and making schools more…

For 24 consecutive years, the Public Policy Forum has compiled and analyzed data from southeastern Wisconsin's public school districts in order to better inform policymakers and the public about the effectiveness of the region's K-12 education system. This analysis of the 2009-10 academic year, like many of the previous reports, indicates cause…

Because of the importance of developing highly skilled school leaders, statewide assessments of 784 Texas public school administrators were compared to determine how leadership skills varied by type of campus (urban, suburban and rural) and by campus student achievement ratings. Important findings indicate differences exist by campus type and by…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Nation's Report Card": Reading Scores Flat for Fourth Graders; Eighth Graders Improve by One Point; (2)…