Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to provide national information on school autonomy, leadership and student achievements in Finland. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is a literature review on Finnish studies focusing on school autonomy, leadership and student achievement. The studies have been reviewed on the basis of a content…

When congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), standardized testing in public schools became the law of the land. The ambitious legislation identified test-based accountability as the key to improving schools and, by extension, the long-term prospects of American schoolchildren. Thirteen years later, the debate over the federal…

It can be argued that nearly thirty years of heavily centralised intervention into English pedagogy, curriculum and assessment have had a deprofessionalising effect on teachers. The accountability stranglehold means it is safer for English teachers to implement accepted strategies that are perceived to enable pupils to negotiate assessment…

For the past decade and a half, the fight to improve America's schools has been fought largely on two fronts: academic standards as one battleground, and accountability the other, with the issue of mandatory testing adding heat to a very public--and increasingly politicized--debate. The questions for policymakers and educators are as direct as…

This study used generalizability ("G")-theory as a theoretical framework to study the effects of multiple facets on the variability and reliability of New York State Grades Four through Six constructed-response scores for ELA and Mathematics. The impact of the study could be both timely and significant given the current political climate…

In hundreds of communities all across the country, three nonprofit networks--The Coalition for Community Schools, Communities In Schools, and StriveTogether--have been making measurable progress toward educational equity. Now they come together to say explicitly that they can achieve their shared goals more effectively if they align their assets…

This document presents the technical appendices that accompany the full report, "Strengthening Local K-12 Accountability: The Role of County Offices of Education." The appendices include: (1) Data Collection Methods; and (2) PPIC Survey of California County Superintendents of Education. [For the full report, see ED570941.]

In this webinar, Dr. Stephanie Hirsh, Executive Director of Learning Forward, presented the research on effective PLCs and shared her experiences in creating, assessing, and leading PLCs. This Q&A addressed questions participants had for Dr. Hirsh following the webinar. The webinar recording and PowerPoint presentation are also available.

This document records testimony from a hearing held to examine ways to expand educational opportunity through school choice. Member statements were presented by: (1) Honorable John Kline, Chairman, Committee on Education and the Workforce, U.S. House of Representatives; and (2) Honorable Robert C. Scott, Ranking Member, Committee on Education and…

The idea of developing International Quality Principles emerged from a dialogue and debate among colleagues from many countries at the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) International Quality Group (CIQG) 2014 Annual Meeting. The discussion focused on whether a single set of international standards for academic quality in higher…

California and the nation are at the crossroads of a major shift in school accountability policy. At the state level, California's Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) encourages the use of multiple measures of school performance used locally to support continuous improvement and strategic resource allocation. Similarly, the federal Every…

Purpose: Increasing government regulation of educational practice with public accountability through a national curriculum and external testing, the establishment of professional teaching standards and associated teacher accreditation requirements are strong forces in contemporary Australian education. This paper aims to identify and examine some…

The implementation of personalized learning (PL) models is growing rapidly; however, research on these models is limited. In particular, little is known about teachers' experiences as they implement technology-based PL models. Additionally, few studies have sought to understand how teachers make sense of PL. Examining teachers' experiences with…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) gives state boards of education a tremendous opportunity to revamp education policy. The federal government will have dramatically reduced influence over issues related to standards and accountability systems. States will have increased freedom to revise state standards and assessment systems, change the…

Background/Context: Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP ) represents educators who work toward academic excellence, cultural competence, and sociopolitical awareness (Ladson-Billings, 2014). Although some profess to embrace CRP , many educators neglect sociopolitical consciousness (T. Howard, 2003; Simmons et al., 2013; Young, 2010).…