This document presents the Educational Excellence Network's third annual report card on the progress of education reform in the United States. Despite much activity, the report assigns reform efforts for 1995-96 the overall grade of C, which is the same grade given for the previous year. Part 1 presents data on academic achievement in American…

This article grew out of a roundtable of national leaders in higher education which explored the role of the academic department in serving as both a force for institutional change and a link to the scholarly world of disciplinary knowledge and practice. The essay argues that the principal threat to the academy is its own fragmentation, with…

Three joint international seminars on governmental roles in organizing and promoting educational research and development were held as part of a study conducted by the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation (CERI) of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This document contains the proceedings of the third…

The usefulness of authentic assessments as formative tools for teachers is well documented and supported. However, when educational institutions use these assessments as summative tools for evaluating programs and meeting accountability needs, several problems emerge. One set of problems relates to the difficulty of fitting authentic assessments…

This booklet provides questions and answers that point to the increasing interest that states have in developing, shaping, and evaluating the success of schools. The booklet highlights the analysis and recommendations of representatives of 10 states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New…

The National Institute on Educational Governance, Finance, Policymaking, and Management (part of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement) helps state and local policymakers and educators use knowledge from research to govern, fund, lead, and manage elementary and secondary schools. This document summarizes what policymakers have said…

What does it mean to be a "good" school district? What are the actions needed to establish a culture of continuous and long-term improvement? This document was written for school and district leaders interested in exploring how to frame and understand accountability for quality. It explores what it really means for a school district to hold itself…

This report examines the process of school reform in Philadelphia (Pennsylvania) during the last half of the 1995-96 school year. It focuses on the progress of the Children Achieving initiative in the first 6 of the projected 22 clusters and considers 11 schools in these 6 clusters in detail. The focus of work in this first year of operation was…

This document is designed to provide enough information for technical colleges and similar institutions to conduct their own focus visits. A focus visit is defined as a full-day activity that takes place on the campus during which a team of 10-25 individuals (program faculty, former and current students, technical college staff, advisory committee…

The term "vouchers" encompasses various proposals with the common goal of providing public funding to parents to use toward the costs of educating their children in a private school. This booklet presents an overview of educational vouchers and explains why they are an ineffective and inequitable strategy to improve education. Vouchers ignore the…

This review identifies options for developing alternate assessments for students with disabilities who are unable to participate in the general district and state assessments used for accountability purposes. It notes that students with disabilities are often excluded from these educational assessments used for accountability and urges development…

This paper addresses the educational, technical, legal, and practical challenges states must confront as they consider the content of the assessment, its technical quality, the capacity of educators and the public to use the results of the assessment, the benefits and additional complications of performance testing, and the overall tension betwen…

The Pennsylvania Charter School Act (H.B. 1834), now under consideration in the Pennsylvania State legislature, allows charter schools to be approved by local school boards or school district voters. Based on the draft legislation and the experience of states with similar statutes, this paper identifies the extent of charter operators'…

The National Assessment Governing Board and the National Center for Education Statistics sponsored a Joint Conference on Standard Setting for Large-Scale Assessments to provide a forum for technical and policy issues relevant to setting standards at local, state, and national levels. Volume I contains an executive summary of the conference and…

This document suggests the following eight model indicators of quality in adult education programs: (1) learners demonstrate progress toward attainment of basic skills and competencies that support their educational needs; (2) learners advance in the program or complete program requirements that allow them to continue their education or training;…