Research on school improvement has accumulated an extensive list of factors that facilitate turnarounds at underperforming schools. Given that contextual or resource constraints may limit the possibilities of putting all of these factors in place, an important question is what is necessary and sufficient to turn a school around. We use a…

The study aimed to conceptualise the key competencies for academic employees in the current dynamic South African higher education environment. Key competencies that enable these employees to perform and meet their work challenges in the dynamic environment they operate in need to be identified to ensure relevant talent and performance management…

This study was conducted to investigate the impact of school resources on student outcomes in urban K-12 Catholic schools participating in the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program (DC OSP). DC OSP, a K-12 federally-funded voucher program enables economically disadvantaged families to enroll their children in private schools, including Catholic…

This summary provides a glimpse at the progress Ohio has made on each of the four statewide educational priorities: (1) literacy; (2) learning acceleration; (3) student wellness; and (4) workforce readiness. This year, 64.5% of third grade students are reading at or above grade level, an improvement from 62.3% last year. Math proficiency has…

Departmentalized instruction, in which teachers specialize in one or more core subjects and instruct multiple groups of students in a day, has become increasingly prominent in elementary schools. Using 8 years of data from Massachusetts and a difference-in-differences design, we estimate the effects of departmentalization on student achievement.…

The problem addressed in this study was that teachers struggle to apply the middle school concept in three middle schools in the U.S. region of New England. This study was a qualitative investigation of teachers' perceptions of the middle school concept and their needs for additional support to effectively apply it. The conceptual framework for…

As global university budgets fall due to inflationary and political pressures and international competition for students becomes increasingly fierce, it is increasingly important that these institutions are financially efficient and academically effective. While accrediting agencies guide the requirements of higher education structures necessary…

The purpose of this work is to develop models of resilient schools, both positive and negative. This study is based on the methodological principles of interdisciplinarity and consistency. The process of identifying models of resilient schools took place in two stages: 1) searching databases for examples confirming the existence of…

Americans' ratings of their community's public schools reached a new high dating back 48 years in this year's PDK Poll of Public Attitudes Toward the Public Schools, while fewer than ever express interest in having their child work as a public school teacher. Results of the 54th annual PDK poll tell a tale of conflicted views of public schools --…

Within-cluster variance homogeneity is one of the key assumptions of multilevel models; however, assuming a constant (i.e. equal) within-cluster variance may not be realistic. Moreover, existent within-cluster variance heterogeneity should be regarded as a source of additional information rather than a violation of a model assumption. This study…

The study suggests a moderator-mediation model: teacher organisational commitment mediates the relationship between the interaction of participative decision-making (PDM) and paternalistic leadership (PL) and a school's cultural attributes to school effectiveness (student academic achievement, teachers' organisational citizenship behaviour, and…

School decision-making promotes school autonomy and success. Today's contemporary approach supports the idea that operative school functioning and development are characteristically accomplished when there is decentralized decision-making. However, less attention has been paid to the collective benefits of centralized and decentralized…

A gap exists between the ability to gauge the success of institutions by deploying a relatively simple set of measures typically based upon the federal cohort, versus the ability to monitor the successful (or unsuccessful) progression of the varied students who move through them. Daniel Regan questions which matters more. To gauge the health of an…

Supporting social-emotional development, such as by fostering experiences of belonging and promoting sharing and productive communication, has long been part of preschool and elementary school programs. Now, high schools increasingly are focused on social-emotional development, too. The most common instruments used to measure social-emotional…

In 1848, Horace Mann remarked, "Education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance wheel of the social machinery" (para. 10). Yet, school reform, especially in large urban districts like New York and Los Angeles, seeking to equalize the human conditions of people is a…