This is a report on how community stakeholders, including parents, teachers, community leaders and advocates, think about current efforts by Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to "turn around" Chicago's lowest-performing schools, and their expectations for future school reform actions. It was prepared by Public Agenda, with support from the…

The content of this guide was derived from ongoing work of a working group on growth models coordinated and facilitated by the SLDS Grant Program's State Support Team. The Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems (SLDS) Grant Program was asked by several states to review current growth models with the goal of determining the impact of different models…

Implementation of state and federal high-stakes accountability measures such as end-of-course tests (EoCTs) has contributed to increased teacher stress in the classroom, decreased teacher creativity and autonomy, and reduced effectiveness. Prior research focused primarily on the elementary and middle school levels, so this study sought to examine…

The problem addressed by this study is the impact of the current high-stakes accountability policy on the work of teachers, and whether this impact has created an environment of intensification. Research has shown that intensification manifests itself in teachers' feeling a loss of autonomy, a de-professionalization of their working environment,…

In 2009, the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) adopted a new policy statement on early childhood education. Based on the work of a task force of 13 chiefs, "A Quiet Crisis: The Urgent Need to Build Early Childhood Systems and Quality Programs for Children Birth to Age Five" presents a compelling argument for why public…

"When will they ever learn?" is the refrain of a Pete Seeger song from the '60s. It could also stand as one of the primary questions in higher education today. It's a question that the educators who teach in institutions, and the businesspeople who hire those institutions' graduates, are asking about students: When will they learn what…

Career and technical education (CTE) is increasingly seen as a major potential contributor to the recovery of the U.S. economy. However, the effectiveness and impact of the current Carl D. Perkins Act (otherwise known as Perkins IV) that governs CTE are unclear. Is the federal investment in CTE paying off? To answer this, we need to establish the…

The "ETF Yearbook 2012" continues the tradition of highlighting a thematic field of particular importance to the work of the European Training Foundation (ETF). The theme of this yearbook is evaluation and monitoring of vocational education and training (VET) systems and the role of evidence-based policy in VET reforms in ETF partner…

The purpose of this statewide study is to assess the perceived improvements made to programs that are offered at Career and Technical Education Centers from the perspective of vocational administrators and teachers following the Bureau of Career and Technical Education conduction of an Approved Program Evaluation. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Career…

Securing a higher level of performance in all schools in all settings has been a major priority of governments in Australia for nearly 40 years. With the first decade of the 21st century drawing to a close, a sense of urgency has grown. The Australian federal government is seeking an education revolution through an unprecedented partnership with…

The overall aim of this volume of essays is to honor Frank B. Murray's commitments to empirically-based quality assurance and to the development of increasingly effective systems of quality control in educator preparation programs. As the editors approached the authors with the invitation to contribute an essay, two characteristic aspects of…

In the last few years, radical neo-liberal reforms have been introduced in the Greek Higher Education sector. The new "reforms" challenge the traditionally high autonomy of Higher Education (HE) institutions in matters of administrative regulations, study structures, assessment of students and teachers. The new rhetoric of the Greek…

This article addresses constructions and redefinitions of teacher professionalism by focusing on the discursive negotiations between the government and the teachers' union in Norway. Based on an examination of three white papers on teacher education from the past 15 years and policy documents put forth by the Union of Education Norway during the…

We report on a study of three school jurisdictions in the province of Alberta. The original premise for the research on which this report is based was to investigate the diverse ways that school districts had administered resources that were provided through a major initiative to improve learning in the province. This account is not centrally…

Technology touches people's lives virtually every second of the day. The work world is especially rich with changing technologies, new innovations, and continually revised processes for greater effectiveness and efficiency. One could easily say that a boiler is a boiler, or a carpet is a carpet, but the reality is that all components of all the…