Charter schools offer choices to parents and teachers dissatisfied with mainstream public education. Averaging fewer than 200 students, they offer nurturing educational communities, inventive pedagogies, and educators committed to learning. Devising an accountability system that accommodates such wide variety is their greatest challenge. Brief…

Accountability has become a politically incorrect issue because governments have encountered the limitations of simplistic market thinking while pressures for intervention in education have waned. However, accepting responsibility in education implies public accountability, which in turn requires formative evaluation, educative reporting…

Teaching young people prosocial values and nonagressive responses to problems is challenging, especially in a culture valuing individuality and personal independence. This article describes two American value orientations (individual rights and multiculturalism) that engender personal aggression and outlines three strategies for coping with the…

The system of college and university governance that has created fine institutions is now inadequate. Institutions should consider restructuring their governance systems in ways that clarify authority and accountability. Faculty must commit themselves to responsibility outside their disciplines. Administrators and trustees must make difficult…

Deplores inconsistencies between the realities of today's technologically driven, information-age world and the static, constraining boxes in which state-initiated, accountability- focused reforms hold American education. We must reconceptualize schooling, curriculum content, time, grade levels, and achievement to allow more informal,…

This article reviews goal attainment scaling as an alternative method for evaluating treatments for children with autism. It discusses the use of goal attainment scaling as a way to provide a convergent link between outcome goals and program goals within a framework of family-centered practices. A case study is provided. (Author/CR)

Facing increasing standardization and accountability pressures, schools struggle to retain democratic ideals while seeking alternative visions. The standards movement defines a well-educated citizen as a technologically adept, economically savvy college graduate. Democracy flourishes only when protecting the marketplace of ideas and a diversity of…

Examines English school inspection before and since 1993 reforms, observations procedures that some schools have adopted, and procedures of various colleges. The balance of accountability and support for improvement varies depending on the details and culture of inspection. In the United States, some experiments with inspection are occurring, and…

High-stakes standardized testing cannot be considered a reform tool for increasing student achievement. Teaching quality is critical in student achievement. Teachers can become powerful agents in raising students' academic achievement levels, regardless of common barriers (e.g., poverty and bilingualism). The extreme focus on high-stakes testing…

Examines fundamental differences between inclusionists and full inclusionists with regard to the primary objective of schooling, student placement, and expectations regarding accommodating to diverse needs. Presents weaknesses in the full inclusionists' and inclusionists' arguments. Argues for identifying appropriately ambitious goals for…

Addresses the many issues community colleges currently face, including decreased state and federal funding, increased competition from for-profit colleges, the digital divide, and enrollment and retirement trends. Suggests that institutions interact with their environments in better, fundamentally different ways. (Contains 14 references.) (NB)

Surveys completed by 72 board members in 42 rural Georgia school districts indicate that contrary to national findings, rural board members opposed school vouchers and tax credits. Rural board members and the national sample agreed that schools accepting public funds should meet accountability standards and accept students from diverse backgrounds…

Highlights a reading teacher in a small New York high school against the backdrop of increasing pressure to demonstrate accountability, sharing classroom observations in the context of the state's education reform agenda, regulations governing compensatory education and English language instruction, school funding, and Title I provisions, and…

Reports the prevalence of school-based after-school programs and discusses extracurricular activities, child care, extended-day programs, enrichment programs, and efforts to make the schools community hubs. Outlines implementation challenges to program expansion: governance, space, program quality, funding, and accountability. (SLD)

Reviews what is known about the overall effectiveness of Title I programs and discusses how Title I can become a more effective intervention. Makes three policy recommendations for fostering better research and better programs, centering on accountability, continued research and development, and randomized experimental studies of promising…