Historians of comparative education have ordinarily viewed the development of that field as having progressed in stages, from impressionistic traveller tales to systematic investigations, with each stage eclipsing the previous one in rigour and acceptability. In this essay, I show that this common "Darwinian" view is simplistic and distorts the…

Accountability efforts at California's community colleges gained prominence in the 1990s under an agreement known as Partnership for Excellence (PFE) that involved the chancellor's office, the legislature, and the governor's office. This agreement was the first wide-ranging accountability effort undertaken by the state's community college system.…

While prior research exists that high schools need to make changes to meet the needs of the students of the 21st Century, no research exists from the perspective of the teacher who must implement the changes. This qualitative study provides a comparison of two rural model 21st Century high schools in West Virginia, both members of the High Schools…

Education in the United States has reached yet another critical milestone on the way toward standardization. On June 1, 2009, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announced that 46 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories agreed to join an…

Principals (N = 76) in a large western U.S. school district were randomly assigned to be evaluated using either a new standards-based system or to continue with the old system. It was hypothesized that principals evaluated with the new system would report clearer performance expectations, better feedback, greater fairness and system satisfaction,…

In this chapter, the author contemplates the future of accreditation in the changing landscape of higher education in the United States. He presents a set of proposals for how accreditation can regain the confidence of college leaders and public policymakers. He begins with the assumption that changes in accreditation--some significant in their…

Dashboard reports--like an automobile's instrument panel--present quick, comprehensible overviews of the institution's status and direction. Instead of speed, RPM and engine temperature, dashboard reports display comparable measures of organizational performance and mission effectiveness. These key performance indicators (KPIs) are presented in…

TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) is an international assessment of mathematics and science at the fourth and eighth grades that has been conducted every four years since 1995, with the most recent assessment in 2011. PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) is an international assessment of reading…

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provided $9 billion in education benefits to service-members and veterans in fiscal year 2010, mostly through the new Post-9/11 GI Bill. In providing education benefits, VA relies on State Approving Agencies (SAA) to approve schools; and on schools to report students' enrollment status. US Government…

Under the "Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965" ("ESEA"), as amended, schools that are served under Title I, Part A of the ESEA and that do not make adequate yearly progress (AYP) for two consecutive years are identified for school improvement. If an identified Title I school does not make AYP while in that status,…

Almost 40 percent of all public school students in the District of Columbia (D.C. or District) were enrolled in charter schools in the 2010-11 school year. The D.C. School Reform Act established the Public Charter School Board (PCSB) for the purpose of authorizing and overseeing charter schools. Congress required GAO (US Government Accountability…

The impact of the No Child Left Behind Legislation has left Career and Technical Education searching for methods and strategies to infuse academics into their curriculum to help students, through a rigorous and integrated educational experience, develop competencies required for higher education and ultimately, work. Unfortunately, there were…

This presentation was presented at the 2011 National Conference on Student Assessment (CCSSO). The focus of this presentation is how to validate the common core state standards (CCSS) in math and ELA and the subsequent assessments that will be developed by state consortia. The CCSS specify the skills students need to be ready for post-secondary…

Since 1959, ACT has collected and reported data on students' academic readiness for college. Because becoming ready for college and career is a process that occurs throughout elementary and secondary education, measuring academic performance over time in the context of college and career readiness provides meaningful and compelling information…

The current study examines the predictive relationship of "Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills" oral reading fluency (DORF) scores to high-stakes test performance. Data were collected from 423 students. The participants were divided into three groups based on the level of progress that was made from the fall to the spring benchmark…