At a time when the contemporary landscape of teaching is populated with successive and persisting government policy reforms that have increased teachers' external accountabilities, work complexity, and emotional workload, understanding why and how many teachers are able to sustain their capacity to be resilient and continue to work for improvement…

Earlier this year, in "Subprime Learning: Early Education in America since the Great Recession," the current state of early education in the U.S. was surveyed by examining progress over the last five years . It was found that while the public, political, and research consensus is stronger than ever, the field remains in dire need of…

We cannot achieve quality learning for all, or nearly all, students until quality development is attained and sustained for all teachers. (Fullan, 1994, p. 246) When the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 was signed into law, the federal government made student achievement and teacher quality a national priority (U.S. Department of Education,…

The 2014 Fordham Sponsorship Annual Report is our opportunity to share the Fordham Foundation's work as the sponsor of eleven schools serving 3,200 students, and our related policy work in Ohio and nationally. We are fortunate as an organization that our policy work benefits our sponsorship efforts; and, that our lessons from sponsorship inform…

States across the country are developing systems for evaluating school principals on the basis of student achievement growth. A common approach is to hold principals accountable for the value added of their schools--that is, schools' contributions to student achievement growth. In theory, school value added can reflect not only principals'…

In this report, a follow-up to the June 2013 report: "Community-Led Arts Education Models in the U.S.: Potential Lessons for Milwaukee", the authors use a case study approach to delve deeper into the underlying mechanics and structural factors of four successful models: Boston's BPS Arts Expansion Initiative, Dallas' Big Thought,…

A mainstay in NCLB and the Obama administration education plan is turning around low-performing schools. This study utilized surveys and interviews with school leaders from four turnaround urban high schools in Texas to understand student outcomes before and after school restructuring and reconstitution. Although some organizational changes were…

Quality in higher education today is often measured by institutional accountability indicators. The purpose of this study was to examine trends and explore correlational relationships of the performance indicators deemed important to the stakeholders of two postsecondary institutions in the State of Georgia--retention rate, graduation rate, and…

In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, President Barack Obama lamented America's failure to keep pace with other industrialized nations and challenged the country to regain its mantle as the worldwide leader in postsecondary attainment. Accomplishing this goal requires not only greater access to postsecondary education, but higher…

Purpose: This paper seeks to analyse the Singapore government's recent attempt to make Singapore a "Global Schoolhouse" by transforming its tertiary education sector. It aims to examine the government's attempt to promote greater diversity and autonomy in the tertiary education landscape; it also aims to examine the government's systems…

Minnesota 4-H Youth Development (MN 4-H) used stewardship as a means to create organizational reform to address the public use of the 4-H name and emblem in terms of risk management, real estate and equipment, and finances. A task force implemented a participatory process with colleagues and stakeholders to build and implement the reform effort.…

Extension educators need simple and accurate evaluation tools for program evaluation. This article explains how to use aspiration as an outcome indicator in Extension evaluation and introduces a practical evaluation tool. Aspiration can be described as the readiness for change. By recording participants' levels of aspiration, we will be able to…

Complexity theory (CT) has had a meteoric rise in management literature and the social sciences. Its fledgling importation into school leadership and management raises several questions and concerns. This article takes one view of CT and argues that, though its key elements have much to offer school leadership and management, caution has to be…

In "Laggards, Morons, Human Clinkers, and Other Peculiar Kids," Robert Osgood takes the readers back to a pivotal moment in the development of American public schools, a time when schools were just starting to be held accountable for seeing to it that children progressed through the system efficiently. As a result of Ayres study, which was…

Large-scale test scores are the most visible representation of what happens in schools in the U.S. The prevailing notion is that they will tell people most of what they need to know about a school, including the quality of instruction and the effectiveness of the teaching and administrative staff. Americans put credence in test scores despite the…