It is a matter of concern when large, federally funded programs are evaluated using designs that produce misleading information. In this article, we discuss problems associated with an evaluation design that was adopted by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) to document the performance of a major early…

This article considers the professional work, identity and recruitment of head teachers (HTs) in Wales. Drawing on the sociology of professions, the article illustrates how intensive educational policy reform post-2011 has restricted HTs' professional agency and re-orientated the head teacher role towards organisational professionalism. Drawing on…

Although coaching holds great promise for professional development, instructional coaches are often asked to take on responsibilities that are not focused on improving instruction. The authors discuss a quantitative study of four school districts and a qualitative analysis of a single district that, together, reveal how hiring practices and school…

Teacher education programs in Australia increasingly comply with new and narrowing accountabilities so that they can be approved by diverse regulatory authorities and accredited. This is an auto-biographical narrative study which draws upon the memories of a teacher educator who contrasts her experience of learning to teach in the early 1980s with…

Each day, thousands of policymakers across the country--from district superintendents and statewide elected officials to local school board members and the U.S. secretary of education--with pressing challenges facing the American education system. In 2018 alone, more than 1,400 new state statutes were enacted related to education policy. As…

University personnel offering online doctoral degrees struggle to address high attrition of students in the dissertation phase; these students can feel isolated, disconnected, and unmotivated. The purpose of this study was to explore ways online doctoral students in the dissertation phase used social networking sites (SNS) to overcome isolation…

This special report -- informed by the Education Commission of the States' March 2018 School Improvement Thinkers Meeting -- guides state leaders toward a better understanding of how to improve lower-performing schools. This brief contains questions in four key areas to provide a road map for digging into school improvement systems and orienting…

Over the past decade, charter schools have gained a prominent role in the debate over how to improve K-12 education, becoming one of those rare ideas that attracts bipartisan support. Yet as charter schools have expanded and begun educating more American school children, so has discussion over the role charter schools should ultimately play in our…

In 2003, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) launched the Academic Performance Program (APP) as a means of measuring institutional accountability of academic outcomes for Division I member institutions. One of the two metrics used to define academic effectiveness is the Academic Progress Rate (APR) metric, immediately drew…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether students who participate in school athletics at Blue High School (a pseudonym) in Maryland perform better academically regarding GPA, attendance, and in-school referrals, in-season versus out-of-season. This study focused on athletic participation and academic achievement. An examination of coaches'…

Released on the 25th anniversary of the opening of the first charter schools, David Osborne's "Reinventing America's Schools" explores the new paradigm of public education that is emerging to fit the realities of the 21st century. Osborne's new book offers a bracing survey of the most dramatic improvements taking place in urban education…

Over the last five years, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) is requiring states to provide more and better evidence supporting the quality and validity of their assessment and accountability systems. Notably, states are asked to explain more fully how the proposed design of their systems will provide accurate and reliable information that…

Policymakers and education system leaders who invest in formal instructional teacher leadership need to carefully consider how to do so in ways that will best sustain teacher leadership and maximize its benefits for instruction and learning. This report outlines how giving teacher leaders responsibility, accountability, and authority to drive…

Creating continuously improving education systems could be the antidote to one-off education reforms that come and go with little to show for the effort. What distinguishes continuous improvement from other reform strategies is its focus on the underlying architecture of the system that is producing undesirable outcomes (e.g., low graduation…

This brief summarizes the January and February 2018 Thought Leadership Forum presentations. January featured a content-based presentation by William Robinson from the University of Virginia on turnaround leadership competencies and February featured Hannah Peria and Elisabeth Peterson from the New Mexico Public Education Department profiling New…