In education, contemporary discussions of standards and standardisation often appear incidentally, as part of the critique of particular standardisation projects, such as national or international assessments and comparisons. This review essay focuses not on particular standards but more broadly on how standards develop, how they participate in…

Post secondary education is essential to success. To ensure that students who graduate from high school are prepared to make informed decisions about their life after high school, they need to be explicitly taught career development skills. These skills should be part of a comprehensive, results-based, developmentally appropriate comprehensive…

Background/Context: Education policymakers across the country face an urgent problem: we know there is wide disparity in teacher effectiveness, but we lack meaningful tools to identify and reward the most effective teachers or to ensure that the least effective improve or leave the classroom. Purpose: This article considers the value of the…

In this article, we argue that leadership of schools is a form of performance that has become ritualised and routinised through the official scripting of policy texts that mandate how leadership of schools should occur. Our interrogation of recent policy scripts in Australia reveals that there is limited scope for leadership in schools to occur as…

Although education is in many ways a responsibility of states and localities, the U.S. federal government also has an important role to play. National laws, court rulings, and policy guidance help ensure that English Learner (EL) and immigrant-background students have equitable access to a meaningful education. It is then up to states and school…

High School graduation rates are key indicators of accountability for high schools and school districts in Oregon. Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) implemented the cohort method of calculating graduation rates. The cohort method identifies the year the student entered high school for the first time…

More Louisiana students than ever before are graduating with the academic courses, career credentials, and financial support they need to be successful after high school. In fact, the Class of 2018 was the highest achieving in state history. Louisiana's comprehensive plan to prepare students for college and career success includes a system of…

This topic paper details how dual and concurrent enrollment programs can help states overcome workforce readiness and postsecondary access and completion challenges and how governors can strengthen these programs by using their bully pulpit, agenda setting authority and budgetary authority to do so. It concludes with a number of examples of how…

In accordance with the Reports Consolidation Act of 2000, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) reports annually on the most serious management and performance challenges the Department faces. OIG's reports include a brief assessment of the Department's progress in addressing the challenges. They also identify further actions that, if properly…

While new teachers bring energy and passion into their classrooms and schools, they can find themselves incredibly challenged as they learn how to plan and implement lessons, collect and use data to inform their instructional practices, build relationships with students and families, manage classroom behavior, and meet the varying academic,…

While new teachers bring energy and passion into their classrooms and schools, they can find themselves incredibly challenged as they learn how to plan and implement lessons, collect, and use data to inform their instructional practices, build relationships with students and families, manage classroom behavior, and meet the varying academic,…

Central to the Public School Forum of North Carolina's mission is the imperative to ensure that all students in North Carolina have equitable access to a meaningful, high quality education through a strong system of public schools. It is important to note that equitable does not mean equal. Achieving equitable access to high quality education for…

The Accountability Plan is an annual report that is closely aligned with the Board of Governors' 2025 System Strategic Plan. This report enhances the System's commitment to accountability and strategic planning by fostering greater coordination between institutional administrators, University Boards of Trustees and the Board of Governors regarding…

This paper argues for a radical restructuring of education for grades 11-14--by erasing the arbitrary dividing line between high school and college--to open opportunities for the learners the current systems leave behind. The authors make the case for an entirely new type of institution--neither high school nor college--designed specifically to…

This report describes the Achieve 180 Program in Year 3, the last of the three years initially planned for this comprehensive program. The 54 participating schools received Texas Education Agency campus accountability ratings of "Improvement Required" (IR), "Not Rated," or "Former Improvement Required". The 2019-2020…