As secondary school leaders consider a shift toward standards-based grading (SBG) practices, they are no doubt weighing the odds of a successful implementation process. This research followed up on a study from 2014 to identify the challenges secondary school leaders experience when changing the currency of the classroom from points to learning.…

Delaware, the District of Columbia, and New Jersey have spent past three years developing math standards and frameworks with guidance from state and local stakeholders and national standards efforts. Evaluation of these states' progress concluded that reform efforts are limited, unless new assessments are aligned with standards. Professional…

This paper presents a model for implementing and sustaining standards-based curricular reform and seven recommendations for principals that are grounded in the results of a comprehensive, longitudinal study. The study examined the characteristics of five schools through data from principals, teachers, students, and external observers over a 6-year…

The national education goals developed during the historic 1989 Education Summit became the springboard for several federal initiatives, including the National Science Education Standards. The Standards define levels of understanding and abilities that all students should develop and recognize that many groups, including principals, share…

Although most teachers are aware of documents identifying standards in their subject areas, few know about "external" standards documents or the standards movement as a whole. Despite impressive lists of content standards, U.S. educators lack direction due to four major problems: multiple documents, too much information, controversial content, and…

Administrators can structure successful transitions to standards-based curriculum and performance assessment. By thinking about this reform initiative's implications, building opportunities for thoughtful experimentation and dialogue, and anticipating dilemmas teachers might encounter during experimentation, administrators can design responsive…

Membership in the worldwide community means that students must possess globally competitive skills. In 1993, the author and the Colorado General Assembly worked to pass a comprehensive educational reform strategy that established "model" content standards in mathematics, science, geography, history, reading, and writing. Uniform…