Purpose: This multiple case study investigated district leaders' orientations and strategies as their elementary schools proceeded with state-mandated implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). We identified differences between schools achieving above-predicted outcomes on state CCSS assessments ("odds-beaters") and…

Passage of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) in December 2015 signaled a new era for teacher evaluation reform. Under ESSA, states and districts have greater autonomy to design and implement teacher evaluation systems independent of federal influence. This new flexibility brings with it new responsibilities and challenges for states and…

The Common Core State Standards Initiative seeks to prepare all students to graduate high school without remedial needs, to improve transparency across states' accountability systems, and to foster efficiencies in the development and distribution of educational resources. The reform was adopted in more than 40 states and has been described as…

Drawing on a qualitative case study of four Head Start sites, this article analyzes a number of governing patterns that have emerged and grown in the field of early childhood education and care in the United States. This article specifically highlights a government's enhanced oversight and management of Head Start programs by mandating a school…

This paper examines the effect of school turnaround in North Carolina elementary and middle schools. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that turnaround led to a drop in average school-level math and reading passing rates and an increased concentration of low-income students in treated schools. We use teacher survey data to examine…

The past three decades in mathematics education policy and research have seen a considerable focus on algebra and its place in secondary schools. Access to and success in the first high school course, most often termed Algebra I, has been framed as a civil rights issue, a harbinger of college success, and a lynchpin to global competitiveness.…

The objective of this project was to develop and pilot a small-scale professional development program that incorporated substantial group and one-on-one mentoring aimed at preparing rurally based preschool teacher assistants to earn the Child Development Associate (CDA) credential. Using a framework that emphasized the relational, developmental,…

This article describes how school librarians in Gwinnett County Public Schools (GCPS) in Georgia addressed a concern regarding the performance evaluation tool that stemmed from the passing of House Bill (HB) 244, which was passed in response to the state's Race to the Top (RT3) application requirements. The bill became law on July 1, 2014, and the…

The road from prekindergarten (pre-K) to post-doctoral (post-doc) work is riddled with potholes, detours, u-turns, and construction zones. National education initiatives such as No Child Left Behind, the Common Core, Race to the Top, Performance-Based Funding, College Readiness and Completion Acts, and Post-Graduate Gainful Employment Reports…

Early childhood programmes (ECPs) serving children from low-income families are becoming increasingly interested in engaging fathers. The purpose of this study was to examine perspectives of diverse fathers with low incomes to more fully understand how their experiences within an ECP influenced father-role construction and facilitated their…

There has been substantial growth in Education for Sustainability (EfS) in the United States over the past 10 years. Efforts within higher education have created thousands of new programs, majors, minors, specializations, certificates, and across-the-curricula integrations of sustainability learning with an emphasis on real-world problem-solving…

This paper examines the rise in student loan default and delinquency. It draws on a unique set of administrative data on federal student borrowing matched to earnings records from de-identified tax records. Most of the increase in default is associated with borrowers at for-profit schools, 2-year institutions, and certain other nonselective…

Despite the prevalence of student learning objectives (SLOs) in teacher evaluation systems throughout the United States, research on the validity of student and teacher SLO scores used for high-stakes decisions is lacking. For this reason, this dissertation is comprised of two chapters that examine student and teacher-level SLO performance data…

In this paper we examine how failing to make adequate yearly progress under No Child Left Behind (NCLB), and the accountability pressure that ensues, affects various non-achievement student behaviors. Using administrative data from North Carolina and leveraging a discontinuity in the determination of school failure, we examine the causal impact of…

Universities develop strategic planning documents, and as part of that planning process, logic models are developed for specific programs within the university. This article examines the long-standing pecan program at New Mexico State University and the deficiencies and successes in the evolution of its logic model. The university's agricultural…