In this chapter, four longtime adult literacy practitioners recount their pathways into the field in the late 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s. Their stories highlight the creativity and openness that characterized literacy work in those years and point to what has been lost as the field has become dominated by the Workforce Investment Act and the…

For nearly half a century, the federal government has largely outsourced the determination of which colleges and universities are eligible to receive federal taxpayer money--in the form of student grants and loans--to member-based, geographically oriented accrediting agencies. This outsourcing of responsibility, however, has failed to protect…

This study was conducted to ascertain what leadership actions best position a principal to facilitate his school's exit from Program Improvement (PI) designation. Existing research suggests that the pressures for change in a high-stakes accountability setting, such as that of PI, are not only more difficult to implement, but also require a…

Research about education organizing has proliferated during the past decade, generating an increasingly rich collection of case studies, national surveys, and other analyses. Research for Action (RFA) has been among those engaged in this work and has drawn on its previous efforts - as well as the knowledge built by community organizing groups and…

How do assessments for learning differ from assessments of learning? What is the purpose of grading? After nearly two decades of immersion in standards-based curriculua and instruction, our nation's educators are often still confounded by the (admittedly complex) landscape of standards, assessment, and reporting. In "Answers to Essential…

By the end of 2013, 42 states and the District of Columbia have been granted flexibility regarding specific requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) in exchange for rigorous and comprehensive state-developed plans designed to improve educational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps, increase equity, and improve the…

The articles in this special issue make clear that the field of early education is characterized by a breadth and depth of knowledge unimaginable 200 years ago, even to someone as exceptional as Elizabeth Peabody. This radical feminist used early 19th-century ideas of the "woman's sphere" to suggest that a career in early childhood education was…

In response to US accountability policies and yearly performance targets, school districts are implementing periodic or benchmark assessments to provide teachers with data to improve instruction and student achievement. The tests are typically given quarterly to track student progress toward yearly accountability goals, as well as to inform…

The discourses of accountability and global economic competitiveness have impacted negatively on the quality of education in schools worldwide. Focused attention on the social and ecological places that people inhabit has been overshadowed by education's support for individualistic and nationalistic competition in the global economy. South African…

This study examines the adherence to process and achievement of the objectives of performance accountability in Higher Education in UNP. To be able to perform the role as guardian of academic and scientific culture, the university should be an independent agency, with the accountable autonomy-based governance. The concept of autonomy in higher…

A formidable challenge most school leaders in South Africa face is to improve the academic results in state schools. In terms of their contracts, principals are accountable for the academic results as reflected in examination and test results for their schools. The National Department of Education (currently the Department of Basic Education) has…

The related constructs of opportunity to learn (OTL) and achievement growth are fundamental aspects of the current large-scale assessment and accountability system in operation in the United States. For purposes of this article, OTL is defined as the degree to which a teacher dedicates instructional time and content coverage to the intended…

The same high stakes accountability measures that have shaped the K-12 educational context over the past decade have become part of the university teacher preparation landscape. National accrediting organizations have created more rigorous, outcomes-based accountability measures for teacher preparation programs. Educational stakeholders offer…

Bullying in higher education is an increasingly common phenomenon that negatively affects organizational climate, completed work's quality and quantity, and students' educational experiences. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate the lived experiences of women adult educators who were targets of bullying. Six…

There is something incalculable about teacher expertise and whether it can be observed, detected, quantified, and as per current educational policies, used as an accountability tool to hold America's public school teachers accountable for that which they do (or do not do well). In this commentary, authors (all of whom are former public school…