Turnaround leadership concerns the kind of leadership needed for turning around a persistently low-performing school to one that is performing acceptably as measured by student achievement according to state tests. I first treat this question in the narrow sense, i.e., as a strategy for targeting low-performing schools, and then place it in a…

In this study, we juxtapose the purpose and procedures for school science inquiry activities as they are portrayed in curriculum policy statements, provincial assessment materials and teacher resources with a teacher's enactment of these policy and resource directives in her classroom. This article draws on data collected during a Grade 6…

In this article, we present profiles of two high school English teachers and their classrooms as the teachers responded to mandated high-stakes test accountability. Both teachers accepted targeted professional development, strong accountability measures, vigilant specialist support, and school site leadership; both believed tests were permanent…

Much of the discussion in the news, schools and statehouses about the NO Child Left Behind Act has focused on testing and accountability, and whether there is enough money to fund the act sufficiently. However, bubbling underneath this publicity is a term that has the potential to cause a minor ripple on the surface or to erupt like ah underwater…

It is difficult to find a person who unabashedly admires each and every detail of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. However, amid all the howls and moans about the implementation of NCLB, the flywheel has been whirring, catching, and turning. In some places, it has turned more than in others, but no matter what the underlying philosophy or…

Multiyear study of a small school district in Virginia finds that portfolios enhance the accountability and professional development purposes of teacher evaluation. While finding portfolios to be fair and accurate measures of teacher performance, teachers and administrators expressed concern about the time required to develop them. (Contains 3…

Examines factors affecting teacher expectancy through hierarchical linear modeling of data from two large-scale surveys of teachers working in schools with high-stakes accountability programs. Finds following significant predictors of teacher expectancy: Teacher perceptions of program fairness, student performance feedback, lack of goal conflict,…

Examines interconnections between accountability, power, and control within the British education system, focusing on the 5-18 education. Although some of the structures and processes are very similar to those of the U.S. K-12 system, the British national system is highly centralized and highly market-driven, with a strong emphasis on parental…

This paper examines how prominent private schools in Australia are performing in a market context according to the tenets of performativity. From a discourse analysis of promotional materials that include prospectuses, advertisements, and school publications, it considers the "value-addedness" that these schools purport to offer. In this…

This article examines the implications of the Primary Strategy for primary school teachers. It focuses on the framework for learning and teaching across the curriculum (DfES, 2003, Chapter 3 "Excellent primary teaching") and questions whether the new framework is in fact a return to a "whole" curriculum approach. The key issues explored are:…

One of the aims of the standards and accountability movement is to make intellectually demanding course work in high school the norm. Significant progress has been made towards this goal. Expecting all students to engage in and succeed with challenging work in high school, however, places on high schools demands they have not been historically…

Philosophical, political, quality, learning, and instructional challenges are being encountered as higher education institutions respond to pressures and enticements of the World Wide Web and the Internet. The author's involvement with electronic instruction, almost from the infancy of that process, provides a basis for his views on these…

In the wake of both the end of court-ordered school desegregation and the growing popularity of accountability as a mechanism to maximize student achievement, the authors explore the association between racial segregation and the percentage of students passing high-stakes tests in Florida's schools. Results suggest that segregation matters in…

There are major issues involved with the disaggregated No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in terms of its adequate yearly progress reporting for students with limited English proficiency (LEP). Inconsistent LEP classification, as well as the sparse population of LEP students in many states, threatens the validity of adequate yearly progress…

The question addressed in this paper is whether there are signs that students' progression through high school to graduation has been affected by the efforts to increase school accountability, including high-stakes exit exams. If such accountability systems were able to raise student academic performance significantly in elementary and middle…