The public is deeply concerned that students in urban settings are not achieving at high levels. Over the past twenty years, large urban districts have attempted to restructure massive school systems using educational policymaking processes that have focused on school structures, standards-driven curriculum, and test-based accountability measures.…

Kentucky has developed an assessment and accountability system that provides outcome data for a set of state early childhood standards for children birth to 5 years of age that are aligned with early childhood outcomes designated by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP). Within this flexible and comprehensive state assessment system,…

Most educators in the United States have had to confront the changed reality brought about by the federal reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, commonly known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). This represents a set of initiatives that can radically transform the federal role in policing and controlling core aspects of…

In this report, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) takes a close look at the governance of the teaching profession and finds that state legislators and other state-level policymakers crafting state laws and regulation, not those bargaining at the local level, decide some of the most important rules governing the teaching profession.…

The British experience of nationwide research quality assessments and new measures to improve accountability are described. Consequences for the higher education system and for individual institutions are examined. Three national assessments of the quality of research in the United Kingdom (U.K.) in 1986, 1989, and 1992 have provided a standard…

A description is provided of the process used by a university institutional research office to respond to questions from external groups and the institutional community about quality, effectiveness, and accountability. The institutional research office incorporated external and internal reports, along with institutional offices' planning,…

In a review of statewide plans for assessing student learning at institutions of higher education, this paper argues that assessment, carefully planned to focus on students, can lead to an improvement in the communication and understanding between the academy and the polity. A brief section on the role of statewide assessment places it in a…

This guide provides advice and recommendations on designing a system of external quality assessment (EQA) for systems and institutions of higher education. Based on a Dutch national model, key features of the suggested system include: ownership by higher education institutions themselves although sanctioned by the government; primary aims of…

Although faced with declining revenues and increasing enrollments, community colleges have also traditionally provided expensive support services for nontraditional students and maintained costly technological capacities to respond to the training needs of business. Financial decision-makers face unsettling questions as they attempt to achieve…

The Education Commission of the States presents an urban education policy framework that is guided by the firm conclusion that state and city leaders must develop a collaborative approach to improve the state and urban education system. Toward this end, the following recommendations are made: (1) raise the state's academic standards; (2) free up…

On October 20, 1994, President Clinton signed into law the Improving America's Schools Act of 1994. This statute contains amendments to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, including the reauthorization of Chapter 1, as the newly entitled Title I. The reauthorized Title I drastically restructures the direction of former remedial…

Many on both "the left" and "the right" passionately oppose an outcome-based approach to education, although their reasons are different. A focus on results, on what children actually learn and how well they learn it, enables taxpayers to hold educators accountable for results. But this apparent good idea has led to…

Since 1992, the New American Schools Development Corporation (NASDC) has supported nine teams that developed designs for high-performance schools. This workbook is a guide developed for NASDC and for school-based reformers. It presents a framework for student and program evaluation called progress assessment. Chapters 2 through 5 provide…

This handbook has been prepared to assist Albertans in understanding the provincial charter school concept, to assist charter organizers with their planning and preparation for the establishment of charter schools in Alberta, and to assist those responsible for processing charter school applications. Bill 19, The School Amendment Act, which…

The growing demand for colleges and universities to be accountable to their publics and the recognition that assessment is of little value without a systematic planning effort have led many institutions to turn to the concept of Total Quality Management (TQM). This pamphlet discusses the process of adapting TQM to a typical community college, a…