Parental-choice debates typically focus on whether private schools should receive public funds "at all." This paper focuses on a question that inevitably follows when schools do receive them--the question of accountability. That is, what regulatory conditions ought to attend private schools' receipt of public funds? This is an enormously…

Texas House Bill 3 established a college, career, and military readiness (CCMR) outcomes bonus, which provides extra funding to districts for each annual graduate demonstrating CCMR under the state accountability system. Some small district and rural district leaders expressed concern about the ability of their graduates to meet the career…

The objective of this audit was to determine the extent to which the U.S. Department of Education (Department) had processes for ensuring that Federal Student Aid's (FSA) fiscal year (FY) 2020-2024 strategic goals, objectives, and related performance indicators were effective. The audit covered FSA's strategic planning and related activities from…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how public-school principals, who were identified to be self-aware, described their communication techniques and emotional responses when leading teachers through change initiatives to meet school performance goals in Southwest Michigan. Daniel Goleman's emotional intelligence theory…

Because of the increase of the rigor of state standards and of accountability, the Lincoln County School District sought to become a part of the state Teacher Leader Network during the 2016-2017 school year as a way to provide teachers best practices for improving the culture and climate of their schools, participating in collaborative…

Schools currently face a great deal of accountability to ensure students with disabilities are meeting rigorous achievement standards and develop the skills needed to be independent and successful upon graduation. Despite this expectation a large achievement gap between students with disabilities and their peers persists. To address these gaps,…

As schools struggle with student achievement outcomes and school designations, the school improvement process has become a central aspect of leadership and planning for school principals as they work to ensure that every child has an opportunity to succeed. Previous researchers have indicated that culture influences everything that occurs in…

Within the United States of America, a few states enacted a new educational accountability system that grades school districts and campuses that is measured by student performance. The state of Texas implemented the A-F accountability grading systems to inform the community and parents about the campuses in a simplistic layout and language. These…

School accountability has been a part of public education conversations since the development of No Child Left Beyond (NCLB) in 2001. These accountability policies were developed with a core mission of holding schools, districts, and states accountable to the academic growth and achievement of all students and all student groups, and for the last…

The United States has been consumed with disappointing levels of student performance compared to other countries for several decades. In 2009, in an effort to close the achievement gap, the U.S. Department of Education authorized a program to support States under The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Authorized under the ARRA of 2009,…

The paper utilizes the fundamental components of social capital theory. It assesses a hypothesis that higher levels of social capital result in benefits for professional development of pedagogy in higher education institutions' faculty. A year-long study was conducted that offered faculty training in increasing critical thinking skills in…

This article offers a new approach to quality, focusing on the dimensions that gather around it. The mismatched goals of controlling and improving higher education continue to trouble the conceptual clarity of accountability. Quality in higher education emerges as something agreed upon (to varying efficacy) through accountability measures, rather…

This brief summarizes "Comparability in Balanced Assessment Systems for State Accountability," published in "Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice" (Evans & Lyons 2017). The study evaluated comparability claims in local scoring of performance assessments across districts participating in New Hampshire's Performance…

It is a time of disruption, in politics and government, in many national economies and cultures. In the United States, disruption has also penetrated the accreditation space, with debates and differences about student achievement, access and affordability and transparency, topics also challenging quality assurance around the world. Higher…

The WSU Extension Scholarly Writing Group (ESWG) is a one-year faculty development mentoring program designed to support faculty on tenure or promotion track. The ESWG was created in response to increased expectations for Extension county-based faculty to contribute to the scientific literature within their fields through peer-reviewed…