This report evaluates the impact of the Professional Learning Communities (PLC) at Work® process on student academic achievement over a three-year period in Texas public schools. Drawing on linked administrative data from the University of Houston Education Research Center (UH-ERC), the study uses a quasi-experimental approach to compare…

"Learn at your own pace and earn your degree without missing out on the important things happening in your life." It sounds so easy and so appealing. In colleges and universities nation-wide more and more students are signing up for online classes in the hope that they will be able to successfully juggle the demands of their daily lives…

Data-informed decision making is considered important for school improvement. Working in data teams is a promising strategy for implementing data use in schools. Data teams consist of teachers and school leaders, who collaboratively analyze data to solve educational problems at their school. Studies show that school leaders can enable and hinder…

Purpose: This paper considers the implications of reform efforts that rely on charter management organizations to assume operational control of underperforming neighborhood schools. The purpose of this paper is to examine the way in which changes to the education sector place enormous pressure on these organizations to both manage instruction and…

Purpose: The purpose of this contribution is to draw on several recent contributions from the "Journal of Educational Administration" to reflect on the relationship between school supervision and educational leadership. Design/methodology/approach: The German context of school supervision was first laid out. A comparative analysis of all…

In an effort to enhance the quality of early childhood education (ECE) at scale, nearly all U.S. states have recently adopted Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRIS). These accountability systems give providers and parents information about program quality and create both reputational and financial incentives for program improvement.…

Purpose: Replicating and extending earlier research, this mixed-methods study inquired about the characteristics of effective school leadership networks and the contribution of such networks to the development of individual and collective leaders' professional capacities. Design: The study used path analytic techniques with survey data provided by…

While principal goal-setting has been shown to be an important leadership practice, there is little research examining principals' goal-setting and goal-achievement. This research examined novice principals' school improvement goals and factors affecting their achievement. Goals from 460 principals enrolled in a national induction programme were…

As a result of budget cuts, accessibility to school extracurricular activities has been hindered. Students in one high school were classified as participants in extracurricular activities or nonparticipants. The groups were surveyed about perceptions of school; student grade point averages were obtained. Four independent samples t-tests were…

Purpose: In the literature, there are many methods that can be helpful in strategic management of universities. Some of them are related to the aspect of sustainability, in terms of balancing the level of fulfillment of different, often conflicting objectives, which must be considered when building strategies. These methods include product/service…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine data use practices within a cross-sector initiative involving high school career academies. It discerns how partners used data to assess the public value of academies and address equity concerns. Design/methodology/approach: A case study methodology was applied to examine cross-sector activities…

This "AERA Open" special topic takes stock of the current knowledge about scaled-up early childhood education (ECE) programs. Rapidly rising ECE participation rates in recent decades have coincided with wide variability in the types of programming available for young children. This expansion makes understanding heterogeneity in effects…

One of the most important relationships a principal has is with his or her instructional coach (or coaches). The strength of this partnership directly impacts student outcomes because it builds collective teacher efficacy. In this article, Student-Centered Coaching experts Diana Sweeney and Ann Mausbach share three practices to elevate the work of…

The authors challenge educators to engage with and for others to build communities that are relevant and meaningful.

In this brief, the authors examine potential differences between child care providers engaged in formal collaborations organized through state-level initiatives versus informal collaborations that are self-directed. The brief presents findings from an EDC study on child care collaboration conducted in Maryland and Vermont. In previous research,…