This report is an update to "Credentials Matter. Report 1: A National Landscape of High School Student Credential Attainment Compared to Workforce Demand" (ED612414). It explores the credentials earned by both K-12 and postsecondary students. The report examines whether those credentials are, or are not, aligned with employers' demand.…

Developing and scaling high-quality systems of college and career pathways that help young people successfully transition through education into high-paying, high-demand careers requires strong leadership. This piece highlights key lessons about the structures and commitments that are necessary for effective leadership and governance from JFF's…

This document describes the model used to measure student growth for institutional accountability in New York State for the 2018/19 school year and how three years of student growth results were combined to generate a three-year growth measure called the Growth Index. The Growth Index was first used in 2017/18 to make accountability…

Purpose: This paper explores, from the perspective of an Australian pracademic, how school leaders are leading during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Design/methodology/approach: This essay explores the tensions navigated by school leaders leading during this time of global crisis, by looking to research as well as the author's lived experience.…

For the past century, standardized testing in the United States has been a measure of school success on both the individual and organizational level. A seemingly benign measure, such testing has informed the allocation of resources and placement of students in coursework commensurate with their perceived abilities. However, I argue that…

In the field of mathematics education, it is common for studies to use test scores to examine racial and socio-economic achievement gaps. The results of such studies have influenced mathematics teachers to address issues of equitable access and achievement as part of closing existing gaps (Gutierrez & Ezekiel Dixon-Roman, 2011). However,…

The Higher Education Relevance and Quality Agency (HERQA) was established in Ethiopia to spearhead efforts in the assurance of quality at a national level. This study examined the views of private providers about the operational features and practices of HERQA. Findings revealed that despite its significant contributions in formalising and…

Check-in/Check-out (CICO) is one of the most commonly utilized and wellestablished Tier 2 interventions (Horner, Sugai, & Lewis, 2015). Evaluation of CICO components is necessary to inform implementation of adequate prevention and intervention services, as well as evidence-based modifications of intervention intensity for students at risk of…

In an era of increased accountability, it is important to understand how exemplary teachers navigate the demands placed on them by their schools, districts, and states in order to support student learning aligned with their beliefs of effective instruction. To understand these negotiations, the authors examined tensions facing exemplary literacy…

The Free Primary Education (FPE) policy in Kenya created a dichotomy between the widespread notion that the government should be responsible for everything and the reality that the government had stopped recruiting teachers. This article investigates the current state of the accountability system for school governance in public schools in the…

Teacher preparation programs (TPPs) have received a great deal of policy and research attention of late. And despite the commonsense notion that preparation for formal classroom responsibilities should improve the readiness of teacher candidates, the value of formalized preservice teacher education is unclear. In this review of the quantitative…

This study explored high school teachers' perceptions of the effects of standards-based grading (SBG) on planning, instruction, assessment, classroom management, and student behaviors. Findings indicated that despite some infidelity and an initial implementation dip, systemic (SBG) changes made teaching clearer, more purposeful, and more conducive…

This paper first provides a brief overview of the history and current usage of the concept of competence in academic research, and then undertakes a critical discussion of how the term is currently used in educational policy. The running example used throughout the paper is competence in foreign language learning. The PISA study is discussed to…

Understanding why and how stakeholders become involved in education governance, and with what consequence, is critical to the success of any equity-minded participatory policy. This area of inquiry is especially salient to California's education law called the Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP). LCAP requires local district officials to…

The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center has begun a research project, Families of Color Advocacy, to learn about parents/caregivers of color's advocacy efforts and experiences to ensure their deaf or hard of hearing children's educational needs are met. The undertaking of this research project is based on key principles so that…