There is mounting evidence to suggest that the examination process is assuming greater importance in young people's lives. Economic change has intensified demand for academic qualifications. An emphasis on viewing young people in terms of outcomes related to future identity and their success or failure within this context involves substantial…

This is a case study of a state institution granted charter status in 1992 in exchange for capping its request for state funds. St. Mary's College of Maryland received widespread freedom from state procedural controls, including procurement, personnel, and some capital development processes. The state, however, retained its oversight of the…

A central problem for school leadership in the United States is to create settings in which success for students motivates teachers. Meeting this objective is becoming more difficult as teachers, except the most brilliant, struggle to cope with the diversity of students in a changing socio-economic climate and a context in which there is a…

For over 20 years, educators and administrators across North America have heatedly debated the value of large-scale student assessment. Throughout the history of schooling in British Columbia, large-scale student assessment outcomes have traditionally served to inform broader societal goals. Realistically, "assessment of" group learning…

With recent calls for accountability in school counseling, it is imperative that counselor educators are structuring the professional identity development of counselors-in-training through guided learning experiences with a focus on demonstrated effectiveness. The author presents examples of course objectives and learning experiences from five…

In the 1990s, federal legislation authorizing funding for secondary vocational education, increasingly called career and technical education (CTE), began to mandate accountability requirements such as improved academic achievement. These requirements have necessitated a search for ways to integrate CTE into broader school reforms that have…

As public employees, educators should expect to be held accountable for their use of public funds. Nonetheless, the various state governments and now the U.S. Department of Education have implemented high-stakes achievement testing as the nearly singular approach to accountability. While these accountability efforts vary in a number of ways,…

In this discussion paper, I seek to understand the complex interaction between notions of "professionalism" and gendered identity constructions against the backdrop of increased state regulation and demands for performativity in the early years. I seek to explore the ways in which "teacher professionalism" is constructed by…

This paper presents a study of dominant educational discourses through textual critique and argues that such an approach enables education studies to preserve an important distinction from teacher training. The texts deconstructed here are specific to English education, but the discourses at work have international relevance as the rhetorics of…

This paper describes, in the context of one highly circumscribed element of English educational policy, namely, "Threshold assessment," the ways in which the boundaries between the public and the private have become increasingly porous and blurred. In this context, some consequences and implications of private sector involvement in…

School reconstitution, the process of restaffing schools as a mechanism for school improvement, has become an increasingly popular component of education accountability systems across the country. This paper provides an analysis of the impact of one district-sponsored school reconstitution reform on the capacity of schools for improvement. We…

Reforms in America's colleges and universities seem to be driven not by quest for quality, but rather, by the need to deal with financial woes. In addition, trends such as the changing shape of the global economy and the unprecedented push for educational accountability are pushing higher education to consider education reforms. In this article,…

According to a February 9, 2006 "New York Times" story headlined, "Panel Explores Standard Tests for Colleges," a new accountability era is descending upon a resistant higher education domain. The story describes the deliberations of a Bush-appointed commission considering imposition of standardized tests on college students. Ten days earlier, the…

To define what is special about the education of students with severe disabilities, this article provides a snapshot of research-based practices that are relevant to the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) focus on accountability. The NCLB requirement to assess all students in reading, math, and science is contrasted to the functional approach typical…

Nationally, public education prepares to meet increasing federal and state accountability requirements. This article examines the history of math education reform and concludes that many present national trends do not provide substantive, valid alternatives to past failed practices. The evidence documents a failure to apply fundamental research…