Educational policies such as Race to the Top in the USA affirm a central role for testing systems in government-driven reform efforts. Such reform policies are often referred to as the global education reform movement (GERM). Changes observed with the GERM style of testing demand socially engaged validity theories that include consequential…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine first-year principals' sense-making about two potentially conflicting demands as they take over low-performing urban schools: the demand to exert control over their teachers' practice, and the need to build their teachers' trust, collegiality, and commitment. Design/methodology/approach: This study…

Over the past two decades, the percentage of American students with disabilities educated in general classrooms with their nondisabled peers has risen by approximately 50%. This gradual but steady policy shift has been driven by two distinct narratives of organisational change. The social justice narrative espouses principles of equality and…

A large diversity of theoretical frameworks exists in the physical education literature. This article focuses on two of those frameworks to examine their compatibility and their complementarity. The classroom ecology paradigm concentrates on the balance between three task systems, two vectors, and programs of actions proposed by the physical…

Over the past few years, students by the thousands have refused to take their state's standardized tests. This "opt-out" phenomenon has prompted debate in state legislatures and in Washington, putting states at risk of losing Title I funds. Advocates describe opt-out as a grassroots movement of parents concerned about overtesting,…

Transformational leadership has served as a model for positive, individual-focused leadership, based on its emphasis on motivation and higher levels of organizational performance. Change is a constant for faculty that become leaders within the Land Grant University System. Changes to governance and accountability of institutions and threats to…

This paper viewed the educational system as a complex whole and a huge endeavour with numerous challenges that have emanated from the dynamic nature of society. The perceived functions of education for a rapidly changing society, has placed enormous pressure on the policy and programmes of education, on the curriculum and the organization and…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide national information on school autonomy, leadership and student achievements in Finland. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a literature review on Finnish studies focusing on school autonomy, leadership and student achievement. The studies have been reviewed on the basis of a content…

When congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized testing in public schools became the law of the land. The ambitious legislation identified test-based accountability as the key to improving schools and, by extension, the long-term prospects of American schoolchildren. Thirteen years later, the debate over the federal…

It can be argued that nearly thirty years of heavily centralised intervention into English pedagogy, curriculum and assessment have had a deprofessionalising effect on teachers. The accountability stranglehold means it is safer for English teachers to implement accepted strategies that are perceived to enable pupils to negotiate assessment…

For the past decade and a half, the fight to improve America's schools has been fought largely on two fronts: academic standards as one battleground, and accountability the other, with the issue of mandatory testing adding heat to a very public--and increasingly politicized--debate. The questions for policymakers and educators are as direct as…

This study used generalizability ("G")-theory as a theoretical framework to study the effects of multiple facets on the variability and reliability of New York State Grades Four through Six constructed-response scores for ELA and Mathematics. The impact of the study could be both timely and significant given the current political climate…

In hundreds of communities all across the country, three nonprofit networks--The Coalition for Community Schools, Communities In Schools, and StriveTogether--have been making measurable progress toward educational equity. Now they come together to say explicitly that they can achieve their shared goals more effectively if they align their assets…

This document presents the technical appendices that accompany the full report, "Strengthening Local K-12 Accountability: The Role of County Offices of Education." The appendices include: (1) Data Collection Methods; and (2) PPIC Survey of California County Superintendents of Education. [For the full report, see ED570941.]

In this webinar, Dr. Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director of Learning Forward, presented the research on effective PLCs and shared her experiences in creating, assessing, and leading PLCs. This Q&A addressed questions participants had for Dr. Hirsh following the webinar. The webinar recording and PowerPoint presentation are also available.