This paper examines how motivations for school-board membership influence individual board member's agendas. It suggests the implications of individual agendas for board dynamics and superintendents when both must be accountable to state and federal mandates and their own district's desire to collaborate to improve academic achievement for all…

The Victorian school accountability framework is designed specifically for Victorian public schooling in the 1990s. These schools have three chief characteristics: (1) a high level of school autonomy in operational decisions about research allocation, human-resource management, and staff selection; (2) a common framework for curriculum and…

This collection of seven papers provides a view of the future of educational leadership. Some of the articles deal with the life and world of the principal, while others discuss the issues involved in training educators to become effective educational leaders. The first study examines methods and structures for preparing educators and deals with…

This report provides an overview of Salt Lake Community College and assesses institutional performance on several indicators. The following indicators are included: (1) participation rate by ethnicity; (2) participation rate by disability; (3) new student assessment of programs and services; (4) success rates of developmental education students;…

This paper outlines the moral underpinnings of results-oriented accountability, drawing on lessons learned while teaching a seminar on accountability and highlighting the development of accountability policy in North Carolina. The paper notes that contemporary thinking about results-oriented accountability "reeks" of moral judgment. It…

This paper summarizes what is known about the effects of Texas policies to raise academic standards, measure student performance, and impose consequences for results over the past decade. A careful review of the best available evidence shows that, while Texas has not yet achieved an education "miracle," the state has taken several steps…

This paper makes the case that the high-stakes testing and accountability program currently in place in Massachusetts misuses scores from the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) to select particular schools as exemplary. School awards and recognition programs in Massachusetts imply that score gains are equivalent to school…

Using secondary sources and interviews, this study collected data from the 50 states on how they assess student and school performance and implement accountability. Detailed findings revealed an array of practices by states. The findings answer: (1) "How are states measuring student performance?" (2) "How are states reporting performance on these…

This study examined the degree of understanding among district and school level personnel in New Mexico regarding recent changes implemented in the State's accountability reporting system. The results are being used to design two further research activities: one to explore the relationship between accountability information and classroom practice,…

This paper discusses students with disabilities who do not fit into large-scale traditional assessment systems, seeks to clarify what is meant by "gray areas of assessment," delineates the primary issues that surround and contribute to gray areas, and provides suggestions for developing fully inclusive systems. It provides brief case studies of…

The 1988 Higher Education Reorganization Act established an accountability process for public colleges and universities in Maryland. The law requires the governing boards of these institutions to submit annual performance accountability reports to the Maryland Higher Education Commission. In 1996, the Commission approved a new accountability…

The 1988 Higher Education Reorganization Act established an accountability process for public colleges and universities in Maryland. The law requires the governing boards of these institutions to submit annual performance accountability reports to the Maryland Higher Education Commission. In 1996, the Commission approved a new accountability…

This document contains accountability profiles with detailed information for the overseas schools of the Department of Defense Dependents' Schools (DoDDS). Each profile contains a description of the school, district, or area characteristics and highlights identified by the principal or superintendent. Profiles also contain the 1997-98 school…

This report evaluates how good a job the states are doing when it comes to putting policies in place that will improve teacher quality. Forty-nine states are included; Oregon and the District of Columbia did not participate in the survey. States receive grades in whether: (1) they hold schools, principals, and teachers accountable for results; (2)…

This paper examines issues and areas of concern for the educational researcher moving from the relative safety of academic research to the more perilous arena of practice-oriented or action-oriented qualitative research. The first question is one of purity or objectivity: giving credibility to research results by imposing adequate rigor on methods…