Recent focus on student achievement and the effectiveness of schools, school boards, and teachers has lead to increased demands for accountability in education. Large scale assessments are now used in most provinces in Canada to examine the degree to which educational standards are being reached and explore issues of accountability. Alternative…

This article considers the relationship between distributed leadership and school improvement. Drawing upon empirical evidence from two contemporary studies of successful school leadership and recent studies of school improvement, it explores the extent to which distributed forms of leadership can contribute to school improvement. The article…

This article outlines a research and development programme that focused on a group of 8 secondary schools in England. The schools in this study were considered to be facing exceptionally challenging circumstances characterised by high levels of socioeconomic disadvantage and deprivation. They were also schools considered to be seriously…

The turnaround recommendations and framework in "The Turnaround Challenge" grew out of both new research and synthesis of extensive existing research, as carried out by Mass Insight Education & Research Institute and its partners since September 2005. If the main report is the tip of the proverbial iceberg, this supplement represents…

Professional development in Rockwood School District, a suburban school district outside St. Louis, Missouri, in 1997 was focused on individual teacher development rather than organizational development. Staff learning activities were fragmented. Teachers participated in a variety of unrelated topics the district offered from month to month. An…

Online learning is growing rapidly as states and districts are creating new online schools, and existing programs are adding new courses and students. The growth reflects the spreading understanding that online courses and programs can serve a wide variety of students and needs. These include: (1) Creating opportunities for small and rural school…

This study is the sixth in a series of studies conducted by the American Association of School Administrators on the impact of the economic downturn on schools. AASA launched the series in fall 2008 in response to state budget shortfalls, federal buy-outs and interventions, and a series of additional events characterizing a slowing, stagnant…

A study was conducted by Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC), in North Carolina, to determine the perceptions of employers of CPCC graduates regarding the graduates' level of preparation. Questionnaires were sent to 160 employers who had CPCC graduates in positions related to their graduates' academic programs and for whom graduates had…

This paper discusses key aspects of the British experience with school review and evaluation, which influenced the development of the South Australian framework for school evaluation. The discussion combines the requirements of accountability and development within a framework of quality assurance. The paper describes shortcomings of the internal…

School report cards can help focus the conversation about a school's long-range goals and how they might be achieved, and then provide the means to track progress from year to year. This document describes the characteristics of good report cards, the relationship of report cards to local decision making, and ways to link reports to school…

In spring 1995, Northern Nevada Community College (NNCC) conducted a survey of student satisfaction with NNCC's services. Questionnaires were distributed to students in randomly selected classes at the college's three sites, asking them to rate both the level of importance of, and their satisfaction with, selected college qualities and services.…

This report by the United States General Accounting Office (GAO) summarizes research findings on what has and what has not been successful in schools and workplaces. Studies concerning successful organizations (elementary and secondary schools and firms in a wide range of businesses) and successful practices were reviewed. Most of the reviewed…

School effectiveness was studied in New Zealand schools, concentrating on Type A effects (given average background characteristics, how well would a student perform in any particular school?) and Type B effects (given similar student populations, are some schools more effective in achieving specified results than others?). Hierarchical linear…

This paper offers a traditional but often neglected view of schools as places of work. It argues that schools are best understood as places where people work and face problems similar to those encountered in other work organizations. Good schools are places where the quality and quantity of work are greater and the work is integrated more…

Recent national reports reinforce the growing perception that small schools are good schools. This may seem a revolution or the latest fad in schooling; however, issues of size cannot be captured in universal guidelines. This digest discusses the history of school size dilemmas to demonstrate why this is so. The earliest research literature on…