Elements of what we are calling a "hopeful pedagogy" emerged when faculty reflected on the question--Do you think your current approach to develop CT in students is successful? Faculty across disciplines and institutions used the word "hope" to characterize the outcome of their efforts. While attempting to disentangle the…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide a dialectical framework for the examination of performance management in schools. Design/Methodology/Approach: The paper is based upon a qualitative study of ten headteachers that involved in-depth semi-structured interviews. Findings: The findings identified four dialectical tensions that underpin…

This paper explores how evaluation, which has expanded at all levels of school governance across Europe, shapes parental roles by studying how local school governors and schools in Sweden represent evaluation to parents on their websites. Websites are prime locations for public communications and are useful for exploring the functions of…

This chapter is a research summary of the author's doctoral dissertation completed in May, 2015, which investigates the way Standardized Assessment (SA) is used in state educational accountability structures. This quasi-experimental quantitative study found that SA scores trend towards consistency over time, and that there is additional variance,…

The contemporary era of educational accountability is marked by a renewal of faith in the principles of scientific management. This article uses Critical Discourse Analysis to explore how new Taylorism (Au, 2011) manifests in, and is reproduced by, the widely used Marzano Teacher Evaluation Model. Through this analysis, the implications such…

Every child deserves the chance at a great education and the American dream. Unfortunately, decades of student achievement data reveal that the increasingly costly U.S. district school system does not provide an excellent education for all students. State lawmakers around the country are now seeking ways to enhance the ability of families to…

Evidence confirms that student skills other than academic achievement and ability predict a broad range of academic and life outcomes. This evidence, along with a new federal requirement that state accountability systems include an indicator of school quality or student success not based on test scores, has sparked interest in incorporating such…

As schools across the United States continue to earmark funds for instructional technology in the classroom we must consider how it is being used in the classroom. This qualitative research study was conducted to investigate instructional technology methods being used in sixth through eighth grade classrooms and to understand the Depth of…

The purpose of this embedded, mixed methods, research study was to acquire knowledge regarding the Pennsylvania Educator Effectiveness system while connecting teacher effectiveness with student achievement. The sample size consisted of five administrators and 18 public school teachers. The teachers taught mathematics in grades 4 through 8 at a…

On August 30, 2016, the Orleans Parish School Board (OPSB) and Recovery School District (RSD) released their Unification Plan to the public. The plan provides detail about Act 91 and the impending changes for local schools, teachers, parents, and students. The plan is necessarily detailed, providing an abundance of information on scheduling,…

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), enacted in 2013, simplified the state's K-12 financial system and increased funding for low-income, English Learner, and foster care students. This is the second report examining the implementation of the LCFF. In 2015, the Public Policy Institute of California published "Implementing Local…

As state and district leaders evaluate characteristics of their student populations, many will find one number particularly startling: The number of homeless students has doubled in less than a decade. States can take several actions to serve these students better, some of which are incorporated in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). Some of…

This document is the result of the Australian Minister for Education and Training's request to the Higher Education Standards Panel for advisement of options to improve the transparency of higher education student admission policies, while minimizing regulatory impact. The Minister intends to improve the accessibility and comparability of…

Since Congress has passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) states are revamping their federally required systems to measure school quality and hold schools accountable for performance. However, most are doing so using outdated assumptions, holdovers from the Industrial Era, when cookie-cutter public schools followed orders from central…

In Michigan, schools and educators are held accountable for performance more than ever before. Charter school authorizers--the entities responsible for opening and overseeing new and existing charter schools--face almost no accountability for their performance. In Michigan's current charter landscape, the enormous responsibility of authorizing has…