Many national education systems incorporate a central inspectorate tasked with visiting, evaluating and reporting on the performance of schools. The judgements produced by inspectors often play a part in the way that schools are held to account and constitute an important source of data in their own right. Inspection reports are therefore of great…

This study examined whether there are significant differences between effective, average, and ineffective urban schools with regard to (a) students' classroom behavior and (b) students' perceptions of their classroom learning environment. Students from four effective, average, and ineffective urban elementary schools that served predominantly…

For the past two decades, student perception surveys have become standard tools in data collection efforts. At the state level, however, "student voice" is still used sparingly. In this study, we examine the ways in which including student survey results might alter state accountability determinations. Reconstructing the accountability…

Currently, the state of Ohio has a separate licensure classification specific to middle-level education, but this was not always the case. Prior to 1998, core teachers were prepared by universities to focus on elementary (K-8) or secondary (7-12). Teachers who obtained their license after the reform are broken into three groups: Early Childhood…

This article considers how digital spaces focused on whole school improvement combined with supportive leadership may be mobilised towards building collective capacity for evidence-informed practice and organisational learning. This topic originated from a qualitative, multi-method design-based research (DBR) project that studied practitioners'…

Given that school districts have considerable discretion over the schools they lead and serve, it follows that district actions can influence school turnaround. Using data from three districts that successfully oversaw transformation efforts in their lowest performing elementary schools, this article provides evidence on how district leaders can…

Purpose: There is limited research in Pakistan that describes how organizational learning, which is not contingent on funding, can be used to improve the quality of education in developing countries. This study addresses this gap in the literature with a study that examines the perceptions of educators at medium-cost schools in Karachi, Pakistan.…

There is a growing global concern about providing effective continuing education and training (CET) to support and sustain the employability of working-age populations. More than enhancing workplace viability and employability, CET also assists in achieving governments' economic and social goals. Educational institutions organise CET provisions…

Participation in non-classroom activities has been documented to extend the intellectual, social, and psychosocial outcomes of the college experience. However, the benefits of non-classroom activities are often difficult to quantify due their voluntary nature, with findings mostly related to students within four-year institutions. The purpose of…

Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation was to examine school improvement strategies that were recommended to improve the academics of a campus, shifting from low performing to academic success. Method: In this study, a quantitative content analysis was used to identify common school improvement strategies that are shared in school leadership…

Section 13 of Senate Bill No. 183 (SB 183) was enacted in 1989 by the Oklahoma Legislature to establish a program designed to evaluate the performance of individual schools and school districts in the state of Oklahoma. This program not only requires multiple types of evaluation by the Oklahoma State Department of Education (SDE), but also…

Improving schooling by reducing achievement gaps based on family background has been on the agenda of school governance worldwide for more than three decades. International benchmarking like the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) is used to find models of best practice in effective school governance. Enlarging school…

Teacher evaluation has evolved from a task used for administrative decisions to an activity whose main goal is the enhancement of student learning and well-being through the improvement of instruction. The actual implementation of teacher evaluation by school principals will determine greatly the extent to which it can achieve this goal. An…

Purpose: Schools in resource challenged communities require principal approaches that break patterns of low expectations and low student achievement. This study identifies Alabama's "outlier" schools that have been consistently successful in attaining higher student outcomes than their neighboring schools despite their similar community…

While research on education for sustainable development (ESD) is expanding, empirical evidence on its impact and outcomes remains very limited. Moreover, the facilitating role of the school organization, while extensively documented in literature on school management and school effectiveness, is lacking. In this study we present and qualitatively…