In this article, we provide commentary on the "state of play" of inclusive education in the United States. We focus on the promises and limitations of inter-related accountability- and market-driven policies and Response to Intervention (RTI) (Vaughn and Fuchs, 2003). We argue that these policies and practice have "hopscotched"…

This article analyses a specific part of the actions taken to improve the quality of Swedish education, namely the expectations formulated in national policy documents for the quality work that local authorities, schools and teachers are supposed to undertake. For the empirical analysis of how these expectations have changed over the last two…

Competence as a measure of "fitness to practice" and its evaluation through mechanisms of personal performance review, has led to the introduction of systems in a number of professions which link appraisal to the maintenance of professional registration (variously referred to as re-validation, re-certification, re-accreditation, etc.).…

A small but growing number of schools and districts across the country are experimenting with personalized learning, an innovation that customizes students' experiences to their individual needs and strengths. Through new kinds of environments, technologies, and ways to demonstrate their knowledge, personalized learning aims to meet students where…

Over the past few years, federal and state education policies have shifted to require teachers to set student growth goals. This was intended, in part, to focus more attention on and strengthen accountability for improving student outcomes. These goals are typically part of a teacher evaluation process that combines a teacher's attainment of…

There are several types of data systems that support data from Part C/619 programs. Although the system types have similarities, each has its own unique characteristics and purposes. The attributes that make one type of data system a particularly good fit for one data-related need or function can be less desirable for another need or function. In…

Today, in conjunction with the Alliance for Childhood, we are thrilled to release our new report "Reading Instruction in Kindergarten: Little to Gain and Much to Lose." In the report we concluded that Common Core reading requirements for kindergarten are inappropriate and not well-grounded in research. Under Common Core, students are…

2015 has proved to be another active year for public charter school legislation across the country. This report provides a summary of the state legislative highlights for public charter schools during the 2015 state legislative sessions. To detail the plethora of activity that's taking place, this summary is organized into the following…

The quality of a teacher's instruction is widely understood to be the most important school-based factor in student learning. By taking positive steps to retain their strongest teachers, principals can maximize the impact of teacher retention on instructional quality, a process referred to as "selective retention." This brief from the…

Amid a growing debate over the use of standardized test scores, states and districts across the country have begun using alternative measures of school quality, including surveys of students and teachers. As a result, many schools now have access to troves of diagnostic data on student and teacher perception. However, with few established…

Public education in post-industrial societies has been restructured based on a human capital model that prioritizes the economic value of citizens for the benefit of globally competitive national economies. In a policy-as-numbers climate [Lingard, B. (2011). "Policy as numbers: Ac/counting for educational research." "The Australian…

Group work is an educational mode that promotes learning and socialisation among students. In this study, we focused on the inclusive processes when students work in small groups. The aim was to investigate and describe students' inclusive and collaborative processes in group work and how the teacher supported or impeded these transactions. Social…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 required states to set cutoffs to determine which schools were subject to accountability for their racial/ethnic subgroups. Using a regression discontinuity design and data from North Carolina, this study examines the effects of this policy on teacher turnover and attrition. Subgroup-specific accountability had…

This research demonstrates that cooperative inquiry (CI) offers authentic opportunities for academics to transform their teaching, paving the way for additional collaborative practices in higher education across a range of disciplines. Using data from cycles of action and reflection, a multidisciplinary group of seven tertiary teachers committed…

In this article, we examine the characteristics of a progressive school-change project in South Korea called the "Hyukshin" School (HS) movement. HSs are public schools that are intended to disseminate progressive and democratic practices. We obtained data from interviews with participating teachers, official documents, reports, and…