We apply a utilization-focused evaluation [UFE] approach to an evaluation of Virginia's latest comprehensive accountability policy--the Standards of Accreditation (SOA). Our study focuses on the implementation experiences of district and high school level administrators in four urban districts. This study is significant in two important ways.…

Education standards do not flop spectacularly. Their failure gives rise to nothing like the black-and-white films of early aeronautical experiments: no missiles exploding on launch pads or planes tumbling from the sky. But 10 years after 46 of the 50 states adopted the Common Core standards, the lack of evidence that they have improved student…

When the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) describes best, first instruction, it is assumed that instruction is occurring in a traditional environment: teachers and students gathered together in a classroom, working in small groups, large groups, and individually, and that there are no safety risks posed by having people in close proximity of…

This brief is part of a four-part series examining the past, present, and future of modern school accountability systems. With the dual forces of the COVID-19 pandemic and the national call to action on racial inequity, the question of how we should measure and hold schools accountable for the impact they have on students is more urgent than ever.…

This study sought to identify existing levels of synergy, or cooperation and compatibility, among school and district leaders and the impact of synergy on standards of quality in Kuwaiti schools. The researcher employed a qualitative methodology based on interviews with principals and administrators representing the six educational districts in…

Standards-based assessment rubrics are recognised as an important tool for ensuring clear criteria in higher education. Most of the available evidence on rubrics comes from studies with face-to-face undergraduate students. Our study evaluated the introduction of rubrics into a postgraduate subject that included both online and face-to-face…

How do teachers situate themselves in their roles as assessors of student work? How do they maintain high standards and provide critical feedback while also doing their best not to shame students who fail to meet those standards? The purpose of this article is to propose a relational approach to assessment. This approach calls on faculty to…

For children with special educational needs, seeds were sown for the move away from segregated settings to inclusion in mainstream settings following the 1978 Warnock Report. However, the "special versus mainstream school" debate was re-ignited in 2005 when Warnock recommended a more significant role for special schools than previously…

The global scale of climate change may seem beyond many high school students' comprehension. To complicate matters, climate change has emerged as a political issue that pits candidates, neighbors, and sometimes teachers and students against each other (Kahan 2015). The "Next Generation Science Standards" (NGSS Lead States 2013) call on…

Since the passage of "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) in 2001, public schools in the United States have witnessed an influx of reforms intended to elevate students' academic standing in a global economy. The unprecedented federal involvement in education resulting from the passage of NCLB has propelled a nationwide movement to standardize…

In 2014, the RAND Safety and Justice Program published a comprehensive analysis that "found, on average, inmates who participated in correctional education programs had 43 percent lower odds of recidivating than inmates who did not and that correctional education may increase post-release employment" Davis et al., 2014, p. xvi). The RAND…

When it comes to mathematics, standards aligned is achievement aligned… In the short time since "The Common Core Mathematics Companions" for grades K-2, 3-5 and 6-8 burst on the scene, they have been lauded as the best resources for making critical mathematics ideas easy to teach. With this brand-new volume, high school mathematics…

The goal of the current study is to examine the impact of students' social economic status, ethnicity, and discipline infractions on their standardized test scores in Indiana, the USA. Data from this study extracted from Indiana Department of Education. ISTEP is a criterion-referenced standardized test. It consists of items that assess a student's…

Large-scale academic assessments have played a dominant role in U.S. federal and state education policies over the past couple of decades. Among the many validity issues that presently concern test users is the evaluation of alignment among large-scale assessments and the academic content and performance standards on which they are based. This…

Teachers are on the front line in any educational controversy. Increasingly, some bloggers, newspaper articles, and other media have criticized the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) (CCSSI 2010) as being inappropriate for children in kindergarten and first grade. However, both research and expert practice reveal that children are…