The implementation of quality assurance (QA) is one of the most challenging reform areas for Turkey due to the unique organization of its higher education system. This paper explores the development of QA systems in Turkish universities. Using a qualitative case study approach, the authors examine how Turkey accomplishes the goal of implementing…

School inspections are expected to have an impact on data use and improvement of schools. Schools are expected to generate data (e.g., self-evaluation reports and student achievement results) as part of the inspection process. This process, in turn, also generates data (e.g., inspection reports) for school improvement. The high-stakes context in…

Using multiple years of data collected from about 100 child care centers in Palm Beach County, Florida, the authors studied whether the Quality Improvement System (QIS) made a significant impact on quality of child care centers. Based on a pre- and postresearch design spanning a period of 13 months, QIS appeared to be effective in improving…

For most of the past decade the policy debate over improving U.S. public education has centered on teacher quality. In this debate, teachers and their unions have often been seen as the problem, not part of the solution. Further, current discourse often assumes that conflicting interests between teacher unions and administration is inevitable.…

Networks aiming for fundamental changes bring together a variety of actors who are part and parcel of a problematic context. These system innovation projects need to be accompanied by a monitoring and evaluation approach that supports and maintains reflexivity to be able to deal with uncertainties and conflicts while challenging current practices…

In 2003, Terrence Martell, a finance professor at the City University of New York's Baruch College, encountered a classroom of 80 seniors who could navigate the complex intricacies of the futures markets and commodities trading. But when he asked them to write a report explaining to a commodity pool operator why he or she should retain the student…

This chapter discusses multiple challenges and pathways to address the margins of adult education and poses question for future consideration.

Computer simulation makes it possible for researchers to test the potential effects of alternative school improvement policies. (Author)

An examination of definition, causes, variables, and strategies of implementation suggests the kinds of data necessary for measuring school effectiveness. By focusing on students who first enter school below grade level standards and by understanding that student learning is embedded in a system of key elements or variables that, over time, are…

I synthesize some of the lessons we have learned about systemic school reform in order and derive two explicit hypotheses about when such reforms are likely to be more and less successful. The first hypothesis focuses on program implementation: to achieve success, any systemic reform must overcome challenges at each stage of the policy-making…

This is Volume I of a two-volume report of a study on the exchange and use of knowledge for school improvement in three paired educational systems in Boston, Massachusetts. The pairings, which involved the collaboration of a college/university with one or more of the Boston public schools, were among 26 such collaborative arrangements mandated by…

This is the Executive Summary of a 1979-81 study of factors and conditions that affect the exchange and use of knowledge for school improvement in three collaborative systems in which a college/university was paired with one or more public schools in Boston, Massachussetts. The pairings were among 26 such collaborative arrangements mandated bv…

This paper examines instructional technology as a means to achieve improvement of instruction and learning. Emphasis of recent research on technical and mechanical aspects of instructional systems is criticized because means and materials take precedence over learning objectives. It is concluded that the entire educational system, not just the…

This is Volume II of a two-volume final report of a study on the exchange and use of knowledge for school improvement in three paired educational systems in Boston, Massachusetts. The pairings, which involved the collaboration of a college/university with one or more of the Boston public schools in carrying out school improvement programs, were…