Data-based decision making is all the rage. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (2009) has emphatically declared, "I am a deep believer in the power of data to drive our decisions. Data gives us the roadmap to reform. It tells us where we are, where we need to go, and who is most at risk." In the past few years, all 50 states have adopted most or…

When "Academic Questions" editor Peter Wood asked the author to give some thought to the dispute between the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and the Association of Literary Scholars, Critics, and Writers (ALSCW), he thought he should say no. Well, what did the CFR report prepared by an independent task force chaired by Joel I. Klein,…

This paper considers the public debate surrounding assessment in English education and presents evidence of the misuse of public data from national tests. Statistics generated by pupil assessments in schools and colleges in England are argued to be subject to misinterpretation by the media and policy makers. The discourse tends either to be…

The purpose of this study is to identify how superintendents use political power, examine the characteristics used by superintendents to function politically, and to define the hidden knowledge of managing politically charged situations. Based on this informative literature and conducted research, I answered the following research questions: 1.…

This quantitative, nonexperimental study used survey research design and nonparametric statistics to investigate Birnbaum's (1988) theory that there is a relationship between the constructs of leadership and organization, as depicted in his five higher education models of organizational functioning: bureaucratic, collegial, political,…

How can the Common Core complement and not conflict with school improvement efforts already at work across the United States? How can it be seamlessly integrated into accountability systems, teacher preparation and development, charter schools, and educational technology? This timely volume brings together prominent scholars and policy analysts to…

Drawing on data from a three-wave longitudinal study, the present research examined predictors of young adults' intentions to participate in politics and their actual political activities while referring to the broader assumptions of the theory of planned behavior. The analyses were based on a sample of university students from the federal state…

Criterion-referenced assessments have become more common around the world, with performance standards being set to differentiate different levels of student performance. However, use of standard setting methods developed in the United States may be complicated by factors related to the political and educational contexts within another country. In…

Historically, New Zealand policy makers have defined quality teachers as those who form effective learning relationships with students and teach in culturally appropriate and responsive ways. Recent global emphasis on standardised test score improvement suggests that this definition is shifting, implying changes for the focus and the form of…

"Newsweek" ran an article on "The Homosexual Teacher" in December 1978. At the end of a tumultuous two-year period framed by Anita Bryant's anti-gay campaign in South Florida and John Briggs' proposition to bar gay and lesbian educators from working in California public schools, reporters concluded, "Most homosexual…

This policy brief explores Senate Enrolled Act 001 (SEA 1), specifically the provisions for how teachers must be evaluated. After a short summary of SEA 1 and its direct changes to evaluation policies and practices, the brief reviews literature in teacher evaluation and highlights important issues for school corporations to consider when selecting…

In this final evaluation of the America's Promise Dropout Prevention Summits, the evaluation reveals that the Summits not only served as the catalyst for the creation of new programs and collaborative efforts around ending the high school dropout crisis, but strengthened existing work, political and public awareness, and funding at the state,…

The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has been hard at work developing criteria and award infrastructure for U.S. Department of Education Green Ribbon Schools (ED-GRS), the first comprehensive and coordinated federal policy in the three institutional roles of schools related to environment, health and education. The ground-breaking award…

This paper historicises familiar assertions that English is qualitatively different from other school subjects to highlight historical commitments and sociopolitical effects of English teaching that are often obscured in contemporary pedagogical writing. It juxtaposes three different pedagogical literatures across the nineteenth, twentieth and…

The term "democracy" is ambivalent--in the history of the United States, it has played both god term and devil term, and inspired both sacrifice and trembling. Robert L. Ivie has mapped the discourse by which American policy elites have said "no" to democracy--the rhetoric of "demophobia." This essay complements his…