Citizens of modern societies must trust a broad range of systems and professionals. When distrust arises, professionals are expected to be accountable. This paper draws on conversational material from a preschool team meeting. When a preschool work team prepares to meet a parent who has complained about their recurring neglect to change her…

New England has a rich history of innovation and economic prosperity due, in part, to the fact that the region is home to some of the nation's most prestigious higher education institutions as well as a wide array of other postsecondary offerings. Nearly 60% of the students that Thomas College, Maine, serves are "first-generation"…

This article provides an historical analysis of major reforms in teacher education, beginning in the 1970s, specifically focusing on the opportunities each reform presented to build a shared agenda across pre-service general and special education, and the constraints that operated on them. The analysis revealed the existence of several such…

Much literature focusing on the academy is concerned with the spread of neo-liberalism into the university sector. We argue that universities in Canada are operating in an era of "accountability governance," with ideologies, discourses, and practices centred on quality, accountability, and efficiency. We explore the interplay between…

State school inspection in Norway is currently changing with targeted schools becoming subject to more complex methods of inquiry. Not only school principals but middle leaders are exposed to this shifting system, for the latter are in the frontline of their schools' everyday practices. The article examines how state school inspection is used as…

In search of embodying values that underpin democracy at school level, the objectives of the article include exploring expectations generated by the constitutional dispensation (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 108/1996, section 41) and delineating those moulded by the South African Schools Act (84/1996, Preamble). While the latter…

Early childhood and elementary education emerged from a variety of knowledge and research bases. Tensions emerged as they were brought together in a unified public kindergarten through 12th-grade educational system. This review describes how standards and accountability policies have exacerbated tensions between early childhood and elementary…

This article examines the impact of a statutory assessment in England, the Phonics Screening Check (PSC), on classroom practices of grouping children by 'ability.' Bearing in mind the argument that assessment is the rudder that steers the otherwise slow-moving battleship of educational practice, it is argued that the PSC has altered how teachers…

In the USA, the dominant narrative surrounding the issue of racial and ethnic discrimination in American public education centres on the rhetoric of steady progress towards equality. While the nationalistic-based dominant discourse maintains that progress towards a desegregated, multicultural American school system steeped in equality and mutual…

This paper synthesizes recent research on formative assessment to elucidate its core components, then examines some new approaches currently being tried in schools. It considers the evidence for them, as well as the questions and issues they continue to raise, and takes a look at the challenges schools and school systems face in implementing both…

The present study examined the Daily Report Card (DRC) intervention in high-functioning students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The DRC is a commonly employed behavioral intervention for treating children with disruptive and off-task behaviors in schools. To implement a DRC, teachers and parents work collaboratively to create an…

Federally mandated standardized testing (i.e., in core subject areas and certain grade levels), as an element of educational accountability, began in 2002 with the No Child Left Behind Act. With that step, large-scale assessments came to serve as one of the foundations of accountability-based systems and policies not only for districts, schools…

Differentiated instruction is a nice idea, but what happens when it comes to assessing and grading students? What's both fair and leads to real student learning? An internationally recognized expert on grading practices, Rick Wormeli first examined these questions 10 years ago in the first edition of "Fair Isn't Always Equal." In this…

The alignment of professional development and teacher evaluation has been a growing concern in teacher professional development practices. The issue of how teacher evaluation can help authentic professional development is important in that teachers only learn what is real, useful and valuable to them. Based on our reflections on current…

This article explores the associations between student performance and the presence of state policies that include student achievement in teacher evaluations. We examined performance among states from 2007 through 2013. Including student performance in state teacher evaluation policies is modestly associated with higher reading achievement but had…