Including growth models based on student test scores in teacher evaluations effectively holds teachers individually accountable for students improving their test scores. While an attractive policy for state administrators and advocates of education reform, value-added measures have been fraught with problems, and their use in teacher evaluation is…

Many evaluations of programs tend to show few outcomes. One solution to this has been an increasing prominence of the movement that requires programs to implement evidence-based interventions (EBIs). But in a complex world with complex organizations and complex interventions, many challenges have arisen to the implementation of EBIs with fidelity…

Background: Despite polling data that suggests that teachers are well respected by the general public, criticism of teacher preparation by various organizations and interest groups is common, often highlighting the perceived need for increasing their rigor and performance. A number of studies and reports have critiqued teacher preparation, and…

The same high stakes accountability measures that have shaped the K-12 educational context over the past decade have become part of the university teacher preparation landscape. National accrediting organizations have created more rigorous, outcomes-based accountability measures for teacher preparation programs. Educational stakeholders offer…

A fundamental aim of the Race to the Top agenda is to assess the effectiveness of teachers based on value-added growth measurement models of student achievement. However, in nontested grades and subject areas, such as music, alternative assessment types are being considered, including district-, school-, or teacher-developed measures. This article…

The conceptualization and measurement of education finance equity and adequacy has engaged researchers for more than three decades. At the same time, calls for increased academic accountability and higher student achievement in K-12 public education have reached new levels at both the national and state levels. Aligning these represents an…

Committing to a tenure-track role by novice university faculty has been described as a difficult marriage, and higher educational organizations referred to as greedy, pointing to the need for research on the transition experiences of faculty themselves. The first year for faculty on the tenure-track is critical for academic faculty success in a…

The formula is simple: Highly effective teachers equal student academic success. Yet, the physics of American education is anything but. Thus, the question facing education reformers is how can teacher effectiveness be accurately measured in order to improve the teacher workforce? Given the demand for objective, quantitative measures of teacher…

The goal of "Keeping Pace" is to to serve as a useful document for policymakers and practitioners, and as such, it takes a journalistic approach to research and writing. Most state and program profiles include footnotes that reference state laws, state policies, and websites of programs. However, in some cases, the information is general and was…