By sampling extreme cases (five high-performing schools and five low-performing ones), the researcher revealed the differences in the teachers' motivation (Mattar, 2010) as well as the extent to which Principals adopted the instructional leadership style (Mattar, 2012) in the two sets of schools. Here, she looked for additional issues, within the…

Having addressed variations of the question--How can a school's success be "measured"?--with mixed results across a collective five decades of service to boards, John Gulla and Olaf Jorgenson endeavored to develop a more helpful answer. To this end, they queried 200-plus leaders of California Association of Independent Schools…

This research aimed to determine the relative efficiency of the types of school common to three administrations of the PISA (2003-2006-2009) by comparing their results, along with the activities that are to be performed for inefficient school types and changes in the efficiency value of the school types by year. The comparative analysis was based…

An analysis of data from the second year of The After-School Corporation's (TASC's) national demonstration of an expanded school day for elementary and middle school students shows that ExpandED Schools improved school culture, decreased rates of students' chronic absenteeism and helped students develop positive learning habits and attitudes.…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop, illustrate, and apply the concept of choice architecture to schools. Design/methodology/approach: The analysis is a synthesis of concepts from the social science research that nudge people toward positive actions. Findings: A dozen concepts are identified, defined, and illustrated as a set of…

More than one out of every five principals leaves their school each year. In some cases, these career changes are driven by the choices of district leadership. In other cases, principals initiate the move, often demonstrating preferences to work in schools with higher achieving students from more advantaged socioeconomic backgrounds. Principals…

Charter schools were developed, in part, to serve as an R&D engine for traditional public schools, resulting in a wide variety of school strategies and outcomes. In this paper, we collect unparalleled data on the inner-workings of 35 charter schools and correlate these data with credible estimates of each school's effectiveness. We find that…

In these financially challenging times, chief executive officers of today's colleges and universities are expected to serve as their institutions' lead fundraisers. Still, many presidents remain uncomfortable in this essential role. With wisdom and insight, Rita Bornstein offers advice on how to identify, cultivate, and successfully solicit gifts…

Education practitioners and policymakers grapple with ways to ensure that students are adequately prepared for college and careers. An important step is ensuring that students graduate from high school. A number of studies indicate that programs and strategies designed to assist middle grades students' transition to high school can contribute…

As charter schools multiply, public school teachers and administrators need to understand the policy landscape in which charters are skimming money from their traditional local public schools, making scarce resources even scarcer. In this essay, the author discusses a related phenomenon that is part of some school reform plans--the reconstitution…

A new data analysis, based on data collected as part of The Broad Prize process, provides insights into which large urban school districts in the United States are doing the best job of educating traditionally disadvantaged groups: African-American, Hispanics, and low-income students. Since 2002, The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has awarded The…

In his book "Our Underachieving Colleges," Derek Bok laments the poor job postsecondary institutions are doing in preparing students for the twenty-first century. Other scholars have likewise noted the central responsibility of today's institutions of higher education being to train students to function more effectively in the integrated…

The Summer 2013 issue of "Voices in Urban Education" presents an interview with Dania Vazquez, founding principal of the Margarita Muñiz Academy, a Boston public high school offering dual-language education in Spanish and English. The first dual-language high school in Massachusetts, this Innovation School opened in the fall of 2012 with…

The purpose of this study was to expand the literature on student persistence in community colleges through three research innovations. First, the literature on student persistence in community colleges was expanded by applying theory to the identification and testing of predictors. Second, it was expanded by validating retention prediction…

This brief examines the series of events that led to the Highland Park school district being converted to a system of charter public schools in 2012. Used as a strategy to help the district eliminate its large fiscal debt while still providing resident students with a local public school option, Highland Park's charter conversion is one of the…