This special report -- informed by the Education Commission of the States' March 2018 School Improvement Thinkers Meeting -- guides state leaders toward a better understanding of how to improve lower-performing schools. This brief contains questions in four key areas to provide a road map for digging into school improvement systems and orienting…

Over the past decade, charter schools have gained a prominent role in the debate over how to improve K-12 education, becoming one of those rare ideas that attracts bipartisan support. Yet as charter schools have expanded and begun educating more American school children, so has discussion over the role charter schools should ultimately play in our…

In 2003, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) launched the Academic Performance Program (APP) as a means of measuring institutional accountability of academic outcomes for Division I member institutions. One of the two metrics used to define academic effectiveness is the Academic Progress Rate (APR) metric, immediately drew…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether students who participate in school athletics at Blue High School (a pseudonym) in Maryland perform better academically regarding GPA, attendance, and in-school referrals, in-season versus out-of-season. This study focused on athletic participation and academic achievement. An examination of coaches'…

Released on the 25th anniversary of the opening of the first charter schools, David Osborne's "Reinventing America's Schools" explores the new paradigm of public education that is emerging to fit the realities of the 21st century. Osborne's new book offers a bracing survey of the most dramatic improvements taking place in urban education…

Over the last five years, the U.S. Department of Education (USED) is requiring states to provide more and better evidence supporting the quality and validity of their assessment and accountability systems. Notably, states are asked to explain more fully how the proposed design of their systems will provide accurate and reliable information that…

Policymakers and education system leaders who invest in formal instructional teacher leadership need to carefully consider how to do so in ways that will best sustain teacher leadership and maximize its benefits for instruction and learning. This report outlines how giving teacher leaders responsibility, accountability, and authority to drive…

Creating continuously improving education systems could be the antidote to one-off education reforms that come and go with little to show for the effort. What distinguishes continuous improvement from other reform strategies is its focus on the underlying architecture of the system that is producing undesirable outcomes (e.g., low graduation…

This brief summarizes the January and February 2018 Thought Leadership Forum presentations. January featured a content-based presentation by William Robinson from the University of Virginia on turnaround leadership competencies and February featured Hannah Peria and Elisabeth Peterson from the New Mexico Public Education Department profiling New…

Throughout history, a disproportionate number of learners have been tracked into terminal vocational programs based on their race, income, gender and disability, leading to jobs with uncertain promise of economic growth and prosperity. While the quality of Career Technical Education (CTE) programs has significantly improved since then, many…

Efficient and effective student-centered instructional elements could potentially streamline educational processes and still produce competent professionals. However, successful implementation of technology-enriched courses that exceed course design standards and meet learners' needs is limited by contextual interactions of the course designer's…

This paper examines and critiques the accountability movement, high-stakes testing, and their relationship to the achievement gap. Analyzing the issues in the context of Texas, the paper discusses dropout rates that were incorrectly identified and reported, the role of courts and specific court cases in high-stakes testing, ethical considerations,…

External accountability policies have spread fast across various educational systems over the past decades. This research examines the relations of internal and external accountability with students' math achievement drawing on PISA 2012. With a sample of 44 educational systems, of which external accountability policies were identified, the…

This study introduces the construct of teacher leadership in the Saudi EFL higher education context. The key aims of this study are to understand the notion of teacher leadership from the EFL teachers' perspective, to identify various leadership roles EFL teachers undertake in this context, and to explore challenges associated with teacher…

Historically, education research and practice has failed to accentuate the factors that promote Black student success and, instead, produced deficit-centered narratives that focused on Black students' academic underachievement and challenges. These dominant narratives have negatively influenced Black students' experiences and there is a need for…