Countless reports have analyzed the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 on teacher quality and student achievement. What many of these reports truly leave behind, however, is the reality that state governments--not the federal government--have the strongest impact on the work of America's 3.1 million teachers. With that in mind, three…

The "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" examines what is arguably the single most powerful authority over the teaching profession: state government. This Colorado edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the first of what will be an annual look at the status of state policies…

In 2005, Governor Tim Pawlenty and the Minnesota Legislature charged the Minnesota Office of Higher Education with developing an accountability system to measure the higher education sector's effectiveness in meeting state goals. Minnesota's leaders recognized that the knowledge, creativity and intellectual capacity of the state's people are the…

"Managing School Districts for High Performance" brings together more than twenty case studies and other readings that offer a powerful and transformative approach to advancing and sustaining the work of school improvement. At the center of this work is the concept of organizational coherence: aligning organizational design, human…

"The Opportunity Gap" aims to shift attention from the current overwhelming emphasis on schools in discussions of the achievement gap to more fundamental questions about social and educational opportunity. The achievement gap looms large in the current era of high-stakes testing and accountability. Yet questions persist: Has the…

How institutional research can improve the quality of institutional performance of colleges and universities in the face of funding constraints is discussed. An example of the use of instructional research to assist in documenting institutional quality in Australia is noted. Institutional research uses data collection, analysis, and interpretation…

Despite their vital role in open-access, two-year colleges, remedial education efforts have increasingly come under attack by legislators and the public, who view such programs as duplicating the appropriate function of high schools, and who believe that limited state resources should be devoted to more prestigious programs. For a college to…

This report documents five objectives for the Canadian post-secondary education system: (1) quality; (2) access for all qualified applicants; (3) differentiation (diversity of educational opportunity); (4) accountability; and (5) responsiveness to changing student and labor market requirements. The report also discusses the changing political…

This paper proposes a conceptual model for celebrating student diversity through altering the roles, rules, and relationships among teachers, pupils, and the community and teaching two components of responsibility: accountability and flexibility. The paper first reviews three historical responses to diversity (marginalization, reform, and…

This monograph summarizes educational policy trends of the past 5 years in terms of their implications for the educational outcomes of students with disabilities. The first section reviews the gradual development of federal and state policies concerning goal and standard-setting activities, accountability, and large-scale and alternative…

This document provides an overview of the 17 universities in the Province of Ontario, describing undergraduate and graduate program offerings, sources of operating income and research funding, and linkages between the universities and the private sector. The first section includes a discussion of the appraisal process used to assess both graduate…

This paper discusses the use of Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) scores and other elements affecting institutional accountability in the University of Maryland system. It asserts that SAT scores in and of themselves are not accurate predictors of retention and success. The publication of SAT scores of first-time, full-time freshmen clearly is as…

In order to evaluate the validity of outcomes assessment at two-year colleges, the American College Testing (ACT) Program developed "Project Cooperation." Institutions participating in the project administered tests and surveys to measure changes in students' cognitive abilities over time and record student feedback, and reported the…

This report is a graphic presentation of teacher and student information, revenue and expenditure data, test results, and other student outcomes for each public school district. The indicators in the district report reflect the increased student enrollment (594,326) and staff (38,290) in 1993, as well as the new cost accounting system used by the…

This report summarizes accountability, productivity, and quality enhancements within the Illinois community college system, including highlights from reports prepared by the system's 49 colleges, systemwide analyses conducted by Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), and state-level accountability and productivity initiatives. Following an…