In 1994, fresh from a two-year stint with Teach for America, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin inaugurated the Knowledge Is Power Program (KIPP) in Houston with an enrollment of 49 5th graders. By this Fall, 75 KIPP schools will be up and running, setting children from poor and minority families on a path to college through a combination of hard work,…

This book presents specific knowledge and practical strategies for school leaders to help them reach high standards of excellence. It focuses on five areas of action: (1) It's about the mission, not the mission statement; (2) High expectations for each and every student; (3) Building communities of learners; (4) Teachers are the silver bullet; and…

Using Singapore as an illustrative case study, this paper discusses the attempts by the Singapore government to improve schools through reflection for teachers. The paper points out that the conception of reflection advocated by the state and practised in schools is explicit and systematic in nature and focuses on specific and proximate matters…

Faith schools are popular with parents and feature towards the top of the annual tables of school performance in England based on the government's preferred measures of school outcomes. Academic studies suggest that although the observed differentials between the faith and non-faith sectors at the end of Key Stage 4 are partly explicable in…

This paper uses the concept of paradigm to examine the current state of School Improvement and its relationship to quantitative School Effectiveness studies. It argues that a significant and explicit paradigm change occurred in the early 1990s, resulting in a managerialist approach; a reductionist use of the concept culture; and an inadequate…

The study investigates how school teachers' personal background influences their deeper learning capacity and the school effectiveness. Furthermore, the study examines the correlation between teachers' learning capacity and school effectiveness. Four sets of analyses are performed: t tests, one-way ANOVAs, Pearson correlations, and stepwise…

In this paper, I consider the importance of the work of Bert Creemers to my own work and the field of educational effectiveness. In particular, the field needs to take heed of 3 key lessons from Bert Creemers' work: the importance of an empirical and sceptical stance focussed on what actually works in education, the primacy of the classroom level…

There are both conceptual and practical challenges in dealing with data from mixed methods research studies. There is a need for discussion about various integrative strategies for mixed methods data analyses. This article illustrates integrative analytic strategies for a mixed methods study focusing on improving urban schools facing challenging…

This dissertation reflects the outcomes of a small school district that is successfully incorporating 21st century skills with the demands set forth by our current educational policy, No Child Left Behind. Considerations regarding globalization, future work force and work skills, definition of 21st century skills, supporting 21st century skills in…

The achievement gap is a persistent academic disparity between White and Asian students and ethnic minorities, English Language Learners, and low-income students. The academic disparity exists within the realm of mathematics. Although many factors are cited for contributing to the achievement gap, this study reviews institutional racism, meager…

Between 2002 and 2007, the Chicago High School Redesign Initiative (CHSRI) opened 23 small high schools. Implemented in partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS), this initiative aimed to provide populations of low-performing students in under-served areas of the city with high-quality, small high schools. These schools were formed (1) by…

This review examines a research study that compares high school graduation rates of students who used vouchers to attend private high schools in Milwaukee and students who attended public high schools in that same city. The study reports that for the most recent year of data, a sample of voucher students had estimated graduation rates 12…

This study compared and investigated the arts attitudes and practices of secondary level mathematics and English teachers working in Connecticut public schools deemed either successful or in-need-of-improvement under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act. This study considered how educators of subjects directly assessed for NCLB…

This study analyses the educational progress of an entire national cohort of over 530,000 pupils in England between age 7 in 2000 and age 11 in 2004. The results show that Black Caribbean boys not entitled to free school meals, and particularly the more able pupils, made significantly less progress than their White British peers. There is no…

In this chapter, the author proposes a model for assessing institutional effectiveness. The Volkwein model for assessing institutional effectiveness consists of five parts that summarize the steps for assessing institutions, programs, faculty, and students. The first step in the model distinguishes the dual purposes of institutional effectiveness:…