What happens when a group of veteran Professional Development School (PDS) teachers decide to challenge a school of education's edTPA policy and take the learning outcomes for their student teachers into their own hands? This article describes the authors' journey to transform student teaching practices at their PDS. As co-authors of this article,…

Charter school authorizing is a powerful strategy for making excellent public schools and educational opportunities available to all students and communities, especially those who are historically under-resourced. Done well, authorizing increases student achievement by expanding the supply of quality public schools. Because authorizing is a…

Strategic Performance Management (SPM) is a multistep process that guides an organization's leadership in designing and revising a system of strategic performance management. Communication is key to the success of any change initiative. SPM provides a logically coherent process for linking strategic planning with performance management, ultimately…

The "Principles & Standards for Quality Charter School Authorizing," first established in 2004, reflect the lessons learned by experienced authorizers. This foundational resource for National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) has been used to guide authorizing practices across the country and is referenced in state…

Strategic planning and performance management are not new concepts; however, education agencies and other nonprofit organizations have struggled to embrace and use the concepts, especially in unison. The strategic performance management (SPM) process provides a mechanism to bring performance management to state education agencies (SEAs), local…

School districts (local education agencies) in the United States are charged with many responsibilities, by law and by custom. The most important is responsibility for assuring schools and teachers have the support they need to provide consistent, high quality, and effective education to promote student learning for all students every year.…

Educational assessments provide data that give policymakers a "snapshot" of how students are performing and serve as a means of holding teachers, schools, and districts accountable. Many contend, however, that assessments could do more to promote deeper learning in K-12 environments. One interesting possibility is the use of…

The Sustainability Rubric is a tool for SEAs to use in assessing the sustainability of any reform initiative (for example, implementing an educator effectiveness system). The rubric introduces a succinct description of the three primary categories of sustainability: context for sustaining reform, system capacity and performance management. The…

The Sustainability Rubric Summary is a condensed version of the full Sustainability Rubric [see ED611436]. It provides an overview of the rubric's purpose; the categories, elements, and variables of sustainability; and the guiding questions to consider. This brief document is intended to be used for reference throughout your ongoing sustainability…

As schools across the country prepare for new standards under the Common Core, states are moving toward creating more aligned systems of assessment and accountability. This paper recommends an accountability approach that focuses on meaningful learning, enabled by professionally skilled and committed educators, and supported by adequate and…

One of the more noteworthy developments in university-based teacher education today is the proliferation of preservice teacher assessment, and in particular, teacher performance assessment (TPA). Indeed, more than 160 teacher education programs in more than 25 states recently adopted the edTPA, a Stanford University developed teacher performance…

This instructional module describes a performance assessment designed to equip prospective principals with the knowledge and skill needed to evaluate curriculum, observe and assess instruction, interact meaningfully with teachers about instructional decision-making, and design professional learning opportunities that enhance student learning…

Drawing on deep expertise and diverse experiences in the sector, the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NACSA) and the Charter School Growth Fund (CSGF) have collaborated to identify a set of key policies and practices that could dramatically accelerate the replication and growth of high-performing charter schools and charter…