The Ministry of education in Colombia set a policy for higher education in which graduates should achieve an intermediate proficiency level (B1) in another language; and by 2025 it expects that they leave college with an upper intermediate level (B2). This report deals with a private college that attempts to participate in the policy, yet the…

This study investigated the responses of 531 preservice teachers to a "Beliefs About Assessment" questionnaire in China. The questionnaire focused on understanding the purposes, practices and principles of assessment for and of learning. Using factor analysis, an inter-correlated two-order model fitted well to the responses. This model…

States are required by federal law to create annual report cards for the public with key data about how their students and schools are doing. The Data Quality Campaign (DQC) decided to find out if these report cards are easily found and understood. In summer 2016, DQC took the following steps: (1) reviewed 51 report cards (all 50 states and the…

A full year of progress in advancing education reform across America is documented in each of the Foundation for Excellence in Education's Annual Reports. In this report, readers will see the broad range of initiatives that the Foundation for Excellence in Education is working on--policies that personalize the learning experience for students,…

Many districts are expanding and diversifying the school options available to parents--a trend that shows no signs of reversing. While all public schools are required to test and publically report results, it remains nearly impossible for families and education and civic leaders to make school-to-school comparisons, especially across district-run…

Imagine students attending colleges and universities around the country having their financial needs met without the use of federal loans, Pell Grants, and higher education tax credits. In "Starting from Scratch: A New Federal and State Partnership in Higher Education," New America's Higher Education Policy Program shares its vision for…

The four case examples presented in this brief are drawn from the Gardner Center's substantial experience conducting rigorous research in research-practice partnerships. The first case describes a partnership approach that enhances a school district's capacity to use integrated longitudinal data to tackle persistent problems of practice and…

As accountability measures continue to increase within education, public school systems have integrated standards-based evaluation systems to formally assess professional practices among educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the extent in which the communication process between evaluators and teachers impacts teacher performance…

The answer to effective formal principal preparation reform across the nation has been to adopt and implement the "Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium" (ISLLC) standards, which in most instances begins with graduate program courses and field training within higher learning institutions. Close adherence to Standard 5, a…

Over the period 2007-2013, a series of undertakings were made to introduce fundamental elements of decentralized education finance to Egypt. In 2009, 8.4M Egyptian pounds (EGP) of the Government of Egypt's (GOE) budget was decentralized to every primary school in three pilot governorates. By 2013, EGP 1.2B of the GOE's money had been decentralized…

The Houston Independent School District (HISD) launched the Effective Teachers Initiative in 2010 in order to provide every student in HISD with excellent instruction. As part of this initiative, HISD implemented the Teacher Appraisal and Development System (TADS) in 2011 to provide teachers, principals, and district officials the information they…

This article brings together critical perspectives on a broad range of issues that emerge from a reading of the National Policy on Education 2016. The issues vary from accountability to transdisciplinarity and from the marginalization of transgender people to value education. Such a complex task of critiquing this policy document cannot be…

Neoliberal discourses defining and measuring "student achievement" and "teacher success" through myopic high-stakes testing-driven criteria for "accountability," can perpetuate the very inequities these reforms purport to address. Nested within a five-year inquiry using grounded theory to investigate experiences of…

The global neoliberal context and the emergence of new forms of 'governance by numbers' is now recognized as a ubiquitous educational phenomenon. In this context, large-scale assessments such as are used to justify marketised ideals of education that rely on comparison by numbers. In Australia, one of the key arguments for large scale standardised…

This study addressed the impact of VAM, concerns with VAM data, uses and interventions educational leaders provided teachers, and components perceived as necessary for VAM effectiveness as an evaluation tool. The demographics used for this study were position, school size, and experience. Due to the documented need for educational accountability…