The Effective Practice (EP) schools are 26 Boston Public Schools (Massachusetts) that have demonstrated high levels of implementation of some of the essentials of whole-school improvement. In 2001-2002, these schools took on the implementation of Collaborative Coaching and Learning (CCL), a new coaching strategy for professional development. The…

Graduates of the service academies operated by the Army, Navy, and Air Force currently make up approximately 18 percent of the officer corps for the nation's armed services. The academies represent the military's most expensive source of new officers. The Department of Defense (DOD) pays the full cost of a student's 4-year education at the…

This paper is meant to help designers of educational accountability systems think more critically about the questions they want to ask schools and the kinds of analyses that best answer these questions. There are two essential questions in school evaluation: how good is this school, and is it getting better? Each of these questions then can be…

This report for South Carolina's Trident Technical College (TTC) includes the following Institutional Effectiveness components: majors or concentrations, academic advising, two-year to four-year transfer, and library resources and services. Across the programs, the most common effectiveness indicators include job placement rates, number of…

Presents an overview of the linking of the strategic planning, institutional effectiveness and student outcomes assessment, and resource allocation processes at Arizona's Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC). The Institutional Effectiveness and Student Outcomes Assessment Model was designed to be integrated into the planning and budgeting…

This report presents the results of a 5-year study conducted by governors and other state and local policymakers on education reform. It is intended for a general audience and offers advice on what it takes to implement comprehensive school reforms. The document elaborates on five lessons learned in implementing comprehensive school reform: (1)…

This paper shows the shift in emphasis in school evaluation that has occurred in the Dallas Public Schools, Texas, in recent years. The primary emphasis is now on accountability in measuring, using, and learning from teacher and school effectiveness. Both value-added and unadjusted measures are needed for these evaluations, and traditional program…

This book is a practical resource to help teachers make schools "intelligent organizations" that can synthesize different kinds of knowledge, experience, and ideas to improve schools. Chapters set forth key messages on school effectiveness, school improvement, teaching, and learning. The chapters are: (1) "Improving the Effectiveness of Schools";…

To follow a curriculum is to be inducted into a social order. From this perspective, curriculum practice has the intention to foster social identities. The visible curriculum and the hidden curriculum are rendered as inseparable. This paper discusses curriculum research in the United Kingdom, adopting the framework sketched above. The paper pays…

This guide provides information on how to create schools that provide better learning environments for students and teachers, cost less to operate, and help protect the environment. The guide is organized into three core sections. The first provides an overview and two interrelated discussions on what is a high performance school building and why…

This report is a product of the implementation of a quality indicator system for Colorado's public higher education system. In 1999, the Colorado Commission on Higher Education established a core set of nine indicators, for which data were gathered and benchmarks were identified for measuring performance in terms of these benchmarks. The first…

This study examined the role of Title I in 18 secondary schools (9 intermediate and 9 high schools) that serve disadvantaged students, are engaged in comprehensive school improvement efforts, and have consistently high or improving student achievement. The study was prompted by the changes to Title I under the 1994 Improving America's Schools Act.…

Presents the results of the 1998 Quality Evaluation of Service Trends (QUEST) Survey administered at Howard Community College (Maryland) to 182 employees. This survey has been conducted annually since 1990. Ten of the service areas listed on the QUEST Survey improved their ratings over the last survey. There were declines in the 40 other areas.…

This paper examines two types of retention, semester and annual, and how they vary by student status, gender, race, program, degree sought, and age. The Noel-Levitz Student Satisfaction Inventory, together with the faculty and student focus groups, provided valuable data to draw up strategies to improve retention and thus contribute to overall…

The practices, policies, and procedures used in all 50 states for evaluating school and school district effectiveness were examined, with a focus on the study of methodological and measurement issues in the collection, analysis, and reporting of information for accountability purposes. Data were collected through computerized literature and Web…