This paper presents a number of citations for research concerning community college institutional effectiveness. These references were selected for the breadth and depth of information they provide on diverse approaches to the assessment of effectiveness. In addition to describing practical strategies for developing and implementing assessment …

This paper uses the notion of "pathological" social science, wherein large claims to knowledge are made on the basis of very small differences in the data, to consider the notion of the school mix effect. It describes a variety of plausible alternative explanations for the same sets of findings, including the school mix effect, but also errors in…

This article uses the concept of paradigm, with examples from various fields, to examine some defining features of School Effectiveness and School Improvement. The situation of schools serving areas of poverty and associated deprivation is seen as a challenge to these paradigms. The struggle to understand and intervene in these schools is…

State and local educators encountered both opportunities and obstacles in their first year of implementing the School Improvement Grants (SIGs) funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). In 2009, the ARRA, better known as the economic stimulus package, provided $3 billion for SIGs to help reform persistently low-achieving…

School leaders are increasingly being asked, whether by rhetoric or policy, to measurably improve student achievement. The resultant need to assist school leaders in their ability to improve teaching and learning for all students in their schools led to the establishment of the National Institute of School Leadership's (NISL's) Executive…

Educational inequalities are evident even before children start school. Some educational achievement gaps widen out as individuals progress further through the education sequence and into the labour market, especially those connected to disadvantaged students. Thus, there is a significant need for careful evaluation of educational policies that…

Congress has the opportunity to move forward on education reform by reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, or ESEA, to ensure all children achieve their greatest potential. Unfortunately, it has yet to find the will to do so, to the detriment of American students and schools. ESEA is the largest and most significant federal…

Since 1994, the U.S. Department of Education (USDE) has provided funding to new charter schools through Charter School Program (CSP) grants designed to provide support for the planning and implementation of effective new charter programs. Grants are awarded to state education agencies, which then provide funding to approved charter schools through…

The key to success in today's competitive environment is meeting the needs of key stakeholders who may have competing interests. Community colleges must meet the challenge to deliver value and to measure performance in ways that are meaningful to different groups. Forward-looking institutions are investing in assessment and capitalizing on its…

There are a number of reform initiatives underway in Turkey but some of these, which are concerned with curricular and structural changes, have encountered serious difficulties. This paper begins with a brief summary of school effectiveness and school improvement research guiding many educational reforms. It then gives some information about…

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2002, underperforming schools have had to adopt research-based models for school reform, without a practical understanding of what that means. This article brings more clarity for educational leaders as they come to decide on how to fit a reform model to their school-specific contexts.

Teachers are crucial to the success of students. Yet many of them are leaving their schools and the profession every year, particularly in poorer, lower-performing schools. Several studies have attempted to identify why teachers leave and how to stem their turnover, but few have identified the quality of teachers who are departing. As in any…

This article identifies concrete steps used at Argosy University/Orange County (Argosy or AUOC) to integrate assessment in daily institutional operations and utilize assessment data for educational and organizational improvements. Additionally, the article addresses the role of an institutional effectiveness committee in facilitating the…

Although No Child Left Behind (NCLB) might have left an impression that only standardized tests and adequate yearly progress (AYP) mattered on the general public, the frustration over the narrow curricular focus also has created an opportunity in the education-policy realm, sparking conversations on what it takes to educate the whole child. This…

Background/Context: Determining the effectiveness of reform strategies is a major part of the current and future educational research agenda. Effects of education reforms will be evaluated largely quantitatively, and an important aspect of this work will be judging how well reform strategies work. The rhetoric of contemporary school reform…