Helping students become responsible for their own learning is an incredibly challenging task since it requires transforming their previous, passive "sit-and-get" learning style into a go-and-get orientation. The authors present a collection of eight schools that offer valuable examples of how to develop students as self-directed…

Today's education technology holds immense promise, but what matters more than the tools themselves are how they are used in schools and in classrooms. In "Breakthrough Leadership in the Digital Age," Frederick M. Hess and Bror Saxberg argue that educators have tended to think of adopting technology as a way to "reform" or…

This article describes a ten-year effort led by youth, community organizers, and a range of partners that resulted in two new, successful high schools and showed the power of grassroots mobilization for social justice. Since opening in 2009 and 2010 respectively, Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez High School for College and Career Preparation and…

It's no mystery why children from low-income families often arrive at the kindergarten door lagging substantially behind their wealthier peers in foundational vocabulary, literacy, math, and social skills. These children, writes Cynthia Lamy are less likely to have the early educational supports their wealthier peers receive. They are less…

Educational effectiveness research (EER) has accumulated much knowledge in the areas of school effectiveness research (SER), teacher effectiveness research (TER) and school/system improvement research (SSIR). Yet many schools and educational systems are not making enough use of the material and their insights. The article reviews evidence of…

The article "Getting lost in translation" by Harris, Chapman, Muijs and Reynolds addresses the engagement of policy-makers and educational practitioners with (the results of) educational effectiveness and improvement research. In this commentary the article is discussed from the perspectives of research utilisation, the solidity of the…

Rather than creating safer schools, punitive policies--such as zero-tolerance discipline policies--appear only to have created hostile learning environments. In response, many advocacy organizations have urged schools to adopt a human rights framework, including restorative practices. Schools with restorative approaches have noted dramatic…

Teachers are one of the key elements in any school and effective teaching is one of the key propellers for school improvement. This review is concerned with how to define a teacher's effectiveness and what makes an effective teacher. It draws out implications for policymakers in education and for improving classroom practice. Teacher…

Since the inception of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, instructional coaching has increased in low-performing schools with limited research. Practices of instructional coaches have varied greatly and the impact on school improvement is unknown. This study analyzed daily log entries of instructional coaches serving 23 Title I and three School…

This investigation examined the role of the principal in school change during the current era of high-stakes accountability. Qualitative methods were used to conduct a case study of one principal who had a record of success in leading school change efforts and developing a model inclusive program in his school. The results of the case study…

Charter schools--what was their original promise? They would enroll diverse groups of students. They would give teachers the room and power to innovate. They would be educational laboratories that would find new ways to reach students, and they would share those lessons with other public schools. But charter schools haven't lived up to their…

Using data from the survey of the Ministry of Education, Nepal-2005 for School Leaving Certificate Exam, this paper analyzes public and private school performance in Nepal. The ordinary least square estimates suggest that private school students perform better than public school students. However, the problem of self-selection bias arises, as…

The principle of schools collaborating to improve is one that has seen growing interest in recent years, and there is emerging evidence that in particular collaboration between high and lower performing schools can be an effective school improvement method. However, this evidence relates primarily to secondary schools, and little research has been…

As expectations of the economic impact of educational attainment are soaring (Hanushek & Woessmann, 2009) and conjectures about successful national educational reforms (Mourshed, Chijioke, & Barber, 2010) are welcomed by educational policy-makers in many countries, a careful assessment of the empirical evidence for these kinds of claims is…

This publication outlines the fundamental principles and process of Strategic School Design. Through more than a decade of research and practice in the area of school resource use, we have found that high-performing schools are responding to the changing context in education by using people, time, technology, and money in ways that look…