In 1997, the Illinois Legislature passed significant legislation that increased the foundation level for general state aid. Provisions in the legislation for increased teacher accountability included changing the single-level teacher certification system to a multi-tiered process, changing the length of time required before attaining teacher…

This report tells what has been learned about reporting on higher education performance in the last 10 years and describes the kinds of information being used to inform policymakers and the public about higher education in the member states of the Southern Regional Education Board. The report provides examples of how the information is linked to…

This guide contains specific comments and insights concerning the application of a standards-based evaluation and accountability system in schools and school districts that enroll significant concentrations of language minority and immigrant students. The guide introduces key concepts associated with the development and maintenance of a…

This workbook is part of a series devoted to all areas of charter-school development. The third of five workbooks, it focuses on assessment and accountability and examines such issues as academic accountability, fiscal accountability, public/parental accountability, rule compliance, assessment and evaluation, financial management, developing a…

This paper uses the urban setting as a case study of some of the persistent challenges facing school principals. It uses data from Washington State and the University Council for Educational Administration's "Thousand Voices from the Firing Line" project to examine the perceived challenges of leading urban schools from the perspective of…

This brief policy paper outlines considerations that school district personnel should address in determining the inclusion of students with disabilities in state and district testing and the use of alternate assessment for certain students with disabilities. It notes that the decision to include or exclude a student from state and district testing…

Some observers of political phenomena are referring to the 1990s as the "age of accountability." Early in the decade of the '90s, articles in periodicals, professional journals and other sources were voicing warnings about increasing public policymaker frustration with higher education and the spreading development and implementation of…

Findings are reported from a 50-state survey of state assessment and accountability systems conducted by the Consortium for Policy Research in Education in 2000. A four-step process was used to collect and verify data for the preparation of state profiles. Nine common layers of accountability have been identified: (1) a statewide system of…

This report presents information from a national survey commissioned by the Public Education Network and Education Week of registered American voters and from focus group interviews, assessing the extent to which the public is supporting or failing public schools. Americans report having only 3 hours or less per week to help improve public…

Educational standards and accountability are at the center of an ongoing national debate on school reform that began almost 20 years ago. This debate has raised fundamental questions about school effectiveness and the strategies educators should use to boost student learning. This book provides a closer look at these questions and seeks to answer…

This report describes five state systems of support in low-performing schools. Discussion of each state system includes a description of the accountability system, the process for identifying low-performing schools, funding resources available, the technical assistance provided, the provider of that assistance, and the resources used to support…

The P-16 initiative of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), which produced the essays in this collection, began in 2000. This initiative has included case studies of P-16 activities in five states and full-day discussions of P-16 issues involving educators and policymakers. These essays articulate what state educational systems…

This manual is designed as a technical resource to explain the accountability system used by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to evaluate the performance of public school districts and campuses. The system integrates district accreditation status; campus ratings; district and campus recognition for high performance and performance improvement; and…

This study examines the potential for city and state takeovers to turn around low performing schools, utilizing diverse empirical measures to gauge the initial impact of city/state school district takeover reform in four districts. Data come from the U.S. Department of Education, Bureau of Labor Statistics, state departments of education, local…

This tool kit is intended to help business leaders seize specific opportunities to partner with educators and political leaders in the next year to implement reforms called for by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, which provides new accountability measures and resources to raise the achievement of students throughout the United States. The…