We speak about the need for critical reflection on practice, but what do we do when we do it; and how do we explain how and why we should do it? This paper explores these issues, and itself acts as the site for an exploration and explanation of what it means to be critically reflective. Drawing on recent research in Qatar, I give an account of how…

Since the adoption of the first charter school law in Minnesota in 1991, charter schools have received considerable attention from policy makers, parents, educators, and the media. In the United States, at the national level, three consecutive presidents--Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama--have actively supported charters. Given the…

A story about superintendents hired to manage two districts finds they exercise good organizational skills--and a lot of hustle--to succeed in this unique role. They don't discount the downsides and do question the money savings involved. Superintendents doing double duty is nothing new, particularly among the hundreds of small districts scattered…

Peer assessment has been gaining significant ground as a means of fostering an environment of accountability and responsibility for group projects in higher education. A popular peer assessment method assigns individual grades via a linear relationship to peer assessment scores. Using this method, a group member who receives his or her group's…

The accountability movement in education, in general, and early childhood intervention (ECI), specifically, have fueled the debate about the quality, benefits, and limitations of various types of publicly funded ECI and human service programs (PEW Charitable Trusts, 2008; National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, 2009) not only in…

The clear call for accountability has been heard throughout the country as it deals with the system of education in the United States. Students are expected to be accountable for their learning as measured by state or national tests. Teachers are held responsible for their students' learning. Colleges and Universities have not, and should not…

This article presents the author's commentary on "Updating the Duplex Design for Test-Based Accountability in the Twenty-First Century," in which Isaac I. Bejar and E. Aurora Graf propose the application of a test design--the duplex design (which was proposed in 1988 by Bock and Mislevy) for application in current accountability assessments.…

This article presents lessons learned from a story of a snowy and dangerous intersection where there was no way for pedestrians to cross. The basic theme of this paper is that if political economy is preoccupied largely with the measurement of externalities, then a goal for the testing and assessment policy community should be to devise strategies…

This paper describes and examines the nature and evolution of school accountability in the Singapore Education System. In particular, the different facets of school accountability are examined through a theoretical framework comprising four relatively distinct concepts of accountability as performance reporting; as a technical process; as a…

A virtual tsunami of accountability policy proposals--from national taskforces, higher education organizations, the federal government, and others--has washed over higher education in recent years. Almost forgotten in this profusion of proposals is the role of the states, which have a large investment in student learning, and--in some cases--a…

This Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) guidance report is designed to support senior leaders in primary and secondary schools to make better-informed decisions about their behaviour strategies. It includes a number of practical examples of programmes and approaches that should be helpful in schools and classrooms where behaviour is generally…

This report describes the Achieve 180 Program in Year 2. The 53 participating schools received Texas Education Agency campus accountability ratings of "Improvement Required" (IR), "Not Rated," or "Former Improvement Required" at the end of the 2017-2018 school year. The 2018-2019 Achieve 180 Program's centralized…

As schools across the country prepare for new standards under the Common Core, states are moving toward creating more aligned systems of assessment and accountability. This paper recommends an accountability approach that focuses on meaningful learning, enabled by professionally skilled and committed educators, and supported by adequate and…

This mixed methods study examined the relationship between school districts' principal evaluation practices and their impact on student achievement in mathematics and reading. School achievement data were collected from a sample of 41 campuses representing 27 Texas school districts. Data were also solicited from a convenience sample of campus…

The author is a special education teacher in New York and a mother of two children on the autism spectrum. The author's intimate involvement in the education system has made navigating the world of special education for her children easier in some ways, but also infinitely more difficult and heartbreaking in others. Since the passage of No…