Explores the progress of multicultural education as an aspect of educational reform and as a form of accountability to significant constituencies of the present public education system. Discusses multicultural education as the effort by the public schools to cope with patterns of social change that highlight the issue of an academic underclass.…

Federal law now requires states to establish achievement goals for special-education students. This article discusses the pros and cons of assessing and setting standards for special-education students. (LMI)

Reviews the role of accreditation in American higher education and shortcomings related to its inconsistency and lack of rigor. Discusses the 1996 creation of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) to oversee accreditation activities. Describes CHEA's organizational structure and analyzes its impact on accreditation and educational…

Outlines the core leadership domains adopted by the Baltimore (Maryland) City Schools, reviews mechanisms used to deliver quality professional development to school leaders, and discusses the accountability challenges facing participants in the Academy for Educational Leadership, an innovative school-business partnership designed to enhance…

Presents a history of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), focusing on procedural changes from 1969 to date and questions whether NAEP results should be used for accountability purposes. It recommends that NAEP should be insulated from reform efforts and that NAEP's monitoring of population levels of educational achievement…

Describes the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), George W. Bush's reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. Discusses ways in which the NCLB affects private religious schools, as well as offering suggestions for the ways in which Catholic schools should be addressing the changes in the law. (NB)

Survey responses of 407 elementary school principals revealed that the factors most influencing principals' decisions to retain students include lack of mastery of material, local and state accountability standards, and the student's maturity level and chronological age. Principals also believe children should be retained in the early years.…

Discusses three distinct but related efforts toward postsecondary outcomes assessment in Washington: assessment, accountability, and accreditation. Analyzes the ongoing struggle to find a productive synthesis of these three arenas, provides an historical context for the work to date, and makes suggestions for "assessment-as-learning."…

Attempts to identify the impact of one sabbatical recipient's leave on those around the faculty member, including fellow faculty, department chairs, deans, other administrators, and students. Examines outcomes in relation to teaching, campus citizenship, and research. Research instrument is appended. (Contains 15 references, two figures, and three…

Explores the nature of school leadership in Pakistan by drawing on two studies describing experiences of headteachers in Karachi. Identifies three determinants of personal efficacy of headteachers: The powers and accountability of the school system, community expectations within the context of the national culture, and the individual's personality…

The challenge in university governance is to provide sufficient autonomy to sustain academic vitality while ensuring that this energy is directed toward the broad public interest. Maine and New Jersey, two very different states, have been experimenting with structural changes, primarily decentralization, to balance autonomy with accountability.…

Looks at male promiscuity and the gender bias that holds females accountable for sexual activity. Examines communication patterns, family structure, and other factors. Argues that family therapists can alter family communication patterns, redefine boundaries, and promote healthy parental involvement to make an impact on the issue of male sexual…

Two years after CEO Paul Vallas was brought in to run the Chicago Public Schools, the schools report higher scores on standardized tests, better attendance, and higher graduation and lower dropout rates. Of 557 schools, 109 were placed on probation, and students were held accountable for their performance. (LMI)

The wait-and-react and laundry-list approaches to combating teachers' collective-bargaining demands are ineffective. An alternative goals-setting approach requires management and the district negotiations team to identify important needs and objectives. West Seneca Central School District ended contentious negotiations by presenting unions with…

The framework the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) lays out is that of quantifiably examining school performance and intervening in inverse proportion to success. Discusses five key challenges policymakers and educators must overcome to make the federal law work. (Author/MLF)