This article reports on a school improvement initiative undertaken by a private university in Pakistan. The Whole School Improvement Programme, designed with the purpose to improve the quality of education appropriate to children and teachers of poor communities, is being implemented in selected elementary schools. Central to the program is…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation extended grants to three educational organizations working to develop or enhance competency-based approaches in large, urbanized school systems. The grant initiative, called Project Mastery, funded the development of technology-enhanced tools, including curriculum materials and online learning…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Project Mastery grant program to support competency-based education initiatives in large school systems that serve a high proportion of disadvantaged youth. Competency-based education meets students where they are academically, provides students with opportunities for choice, and awards…

School policy regarding student failure of courses at the K-12 level generally focuses on grade retention or social promotion, neither of which addresses the students' needs. Grade retention has never been effective in helping students gain mastery of course objectives. To reduce the numbers of social promotions, many states require 8th graders to…

Although earlier research has examined the potential of portfolios as assessment tools, research on the use of portfolios in the context of second-language education in Canada has been limited. The goal of this study was to explore the benefits and challenges of implementing a portfolio-based language assessment (PBLA) model in Language…

An evaluation of the Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP) found that despite significant implementation challenges, parent-child communication and youths' attitudes towards school both improved. A voluntary program for middle school students at risk for chronic truancy, TCDP involves judicially-led sessions that address student attitudes…

This small-scale mixed method research focuses on investigating the way Preparatory Year English Program (PYEP) female students in a Saudi tertiary level institution context are assessed and how they are advanced from level three (Pre-intermediate) and level four (Intermediate). A four-point agreement scale survey was conducted with fifteen…

The reality that American public schools are not meeting the needs of all students and the increasing incongruity between student and teacher demographics demand increased efforts to prepare teacher candidates to work with students who are ethnically, culturally and linguistically diverse. Teacher preparation programs are charged with this work…

This study explored the perceptions of preservice teacher candidates who participated in a pilot partnership between a public teacher education preparation program and Junior Achievement (JA). The partnership was grounded in the premise that providing early field experiences to preservice teacher candidates was a necessary requirement of quality…

This paper reports on the findings of a pilot school-based professional development programme for Tanzanian primary school teachers launched in February 2011 and evaluated in December 2012 by the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training with the support of UNICEF. The study set out to investigate the effectiveness and efficiency of the pilot…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the process of involving students and staff on school action groups, and staff and student experiences of reviewing local data and initiating school-level changes, to address bullying and other aggression. Design/methodology/approach: The authors draw on qualitative, process data collected at four…

The objective of this research is to explore comprehensively the effect of induction on new teachers. Through a mixed-method design, the authors examine both the inputs of induction (i.e., the types of support provided for new teachers, its content, and frequency) and a variety of outcomes (i.e., teacher efficacy, teacher-reported growth, teacher…

National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) were launched in the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland) in 1987 as a framework for rationalising what was described at the time as the "jungle" of existing vocational qualifications. They were never intended to be the basis for a comprehensive NQF for all qualifications; however, successive…

The purpose of this study is to answer the question: How do pilot users of the Danielson Evaluation System perceive this model in two mid-south high schools? The study describes the perceptions of teachers and administrators who implemented the Danielson Teacher Evaluation Model. The primary focus was on teachers and administrators experience with…

This article focuses on a Western Vocational Lifelong Learning Network (WVLLN) initiative aimed at supporting Level 3 vocational tutors in further education (FE) who have moved into a teaching career via professional experience rather than through higher education (HE), but who play a significant role in advising young people about progression to…