School choice reforms are increasingly common across the U.S. This symposium summarizes and presents the most recent research on the social effects of private school choice programs and public charter schools. All three papers consider heterogeneity in effects that can and should inform policymaking. The first paper, "Charter School Entry and…

This book presents the perspectives of experts from the fields of history, economics, political science, and psychology on what is known about accountability, what still needs to be learned, what should be done right now, and what should be avoided in devising accountability systems. The common myths about accountability are dispelled and how it…

This collection of essays addresses the issues that have arisen in the development and implementation of national and state standards in science, mathematics, history, economics, and the English language arts. The chapters are: (1) "The 1997 Mathematics Standards War in California" (Hung-Hsi Wu); (2) "Judging State Standards for…

In 1998 the Colorado State General Assembly passed a bill that revised the schedule for implementation of the Colorado Student Assessment Program of state assessments. During the 1998-99 school year, the state assessment was to include third-grade literacy, fourth-grade reading and writing, and seventh-grade reading and writing. The newsletters in…

This report is the second in a series of biennial, state-by-state 50-state report cards. As in the earlier report, state higher education systems are evaluated, compared, and graded in five categories of performance: preparation, participation, affordability, completion, and benefits. All states are given an "incomplete" in the sixth category,…

These discussions of performance-based student assessment provide a record of a decade-long exploration of unsettled issues in assessment. The first section provides the elements of a basic rationale for performance-based assessment, while the second section contains accounts of efforts to develop new performance-based systems in one city and four…

This is the 2011 Yearbook of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA). This Yearbook contains five parts. Part I, Invited Chapters, includes: (1) NCPEA President's Message, 2011 (Gary W. Kinsey); (2) Shadows and Images II (Lloyd Duvall); and (3) Micropolitics in the School: Teacher Leaders' Use of Political Skill…

This document presents 10 papers concerning the 1990 Trial State Assessment, which was restricted to the eighth-grade public school population in 37 states, the District of Columbia, and 2 U.S. territories. The following are the papers: (1) "A Critique of Sampling in the 1990 Trial State Assessment" (Bruce D. Spencer); (2)…

The five commissioned papers in this anthology provided part of the research base for the national report, "National Excellence: A Case for Developing America's Talent." In the first paper, "The Performance of High Ability Students in the United States on National and International Tests," Carolyn Callahan describes…