Immigrant students, one of the fastest-growing populations in US public schools, have been linguistically and culturally disadvantaged by accountability policies that rely only on standardized tests. Recent changes to these policies allow for the use of performance-based assessment tasks (PBATs) as an assessment indicator to supplement…

Schools with similar demographics have varying school performance; these differences exist among schools across Western Pennsylvania. Questions remain as to why some schools perform at higher levels than other schools in similar regions. Some researchers posit that leadership practices in different schools may influence student learning and school…

Previous work around school "quality" has typically identified schools that are "beating the odds." Such an approach finds "outlier schools" by analyzing student outcomes, and studies these schools to determine what they appear to be doing well. However, in our early thinking about improving school quality, we began…

Background: For decades, public education, particularly in urban communities, has failed to ensure students of color are able to experience sustained academic success. As a result, campuses within these communities often find themselves vacillating between impending school improvement reforms and short-lived school improvements, only to return to…

The findings in this article arose from a study on the various pathways of preparation for novice middle level teachers (Hesson, 2016). All participants were graduates of the same teacher preparation program and novice middle school teachers in the local urban school district of their university. The fact that all were teachers in an urban…

Three essential elements--curriculum, sound instruction, and authentic literacy--are the primary, fundamental drivers of schooling and its improvement, says ASCD author Mike Schmoker. And yet they are rarely implemented. If our schools are to enter Marzano's "era of unprecedented effectiveness," then we must change the way we train…

This study focused on academic achievement among a sample of 810 students studying in vocational and nonvocational high schools in Turkey. It specifically investigated (a) the current levels of academic achievement and psychological resilience, (b) the relationships between levels of academic achievement and psychological resilience, (c) whether…

Purpose: Inspection and evaluation in education gained a different dimension with the implementation of concepts such as accountability, transparency and effectiveness to educational organizations. School self-evaluation is put into practice based on evidence in cooperation with stakeholders in order to develop and improve schools accordingly. The…

The article uses the framework of resiliency to examine the strategies of principals in schools working under challenging socio-economic conditions that show higher-than-expected educational results. We collected a unique set of data within the Russian 'National monitoring of education markets and organisations' programme. This work continues the…

Increased school autonomy and a greater focus on achieving school effectiveness and improvement has made it essential to reconsider the role of school leaders (OECD 2009, "Creating Effective Teaching and Learning Environments: First Results from TALIS." Paris: OECD Publishing). This recommends that leadership development in this rapidly…

This article reports on findings related to possible strategies of improving school effectiveness in Abu Dhabi from the perspectives of their stakeholders' perceptions, namely, principals, teachers, students, and parents. This study considered 18 strategies of meaningful school improvement (SI) to help align Abu Dhabi schools to international…

Three hundred sixty-one seminarians from the 48 diocesan seminaries in the United States and the North American College in Rome, Italy responded to a survey regarding their sentiments about the value of Catholic schools, their effectiveness, and the importance of financially supporting them. The results suggest that while diocesan seminarians are…

This report details the Network for Public Education's two month examination of the U.S. Department of Education's Charter Schools Program (CSP). Our investigation found a troubling pattern of insufficient applicant review, contradictions between information provided by applicants and available public data, the gifting of funds to schools with…

This is the executive summary for the report, "Seizing the Opportunity: Educating Students with Disabilities in Charter Schools." Only about 20 percent of students with disabilities score at proficient levels on state assessments. Fewer than 70 percent earn a high school diploma within four years. Charter schools, which operate with…

Texas enacted legislation allowing for the establishment of charter schools in 1995. The Texas charter sector has subsequently grown into one of the largest in the nation. Today, there are more than 600 charter schools in Texas educating approximately 3.5 percent of public school students. In this study, the authors estimate the impact of charter…