Lewis Carroll famously noted that "if you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there". This capstone project joins the dialogue of the importance of adapting the principal preparation programs at colleges and universities to adequately provide aspiring principals the skills needed to lead the work in low-performing…

In 2009 the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) published "Charter School Success or Selective Out-Migration of Low-Achievers? The Effects of Enrollment Management on Student Achievement." The report profiles Boston's high-performing charter high schools and middle schools and calculates attrition rates for individual schools…

Workforce projections indicate that a majority of jobs to be created in the U.S. economy will require some form of postsecondary education (Cappelli, 2015; Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). At the same time, colleges and universities are being held accountable for completion and graduation of their students (The Commission, 2014) and…

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the lived experiences of teachers during their job searches for employment in the field of education which could inform recruiters in a rural, low-wealth LEA in southeastern North Carolina of the behaviors they need to display and the strategies they need to employ in order…

Trustees face complex choices related to costs and efficiency as they navigate new accountability policies, financial headwinds, and a changing global marketplace for college education. The latest release in a series of trustee guides from the American Council of Trustees and Alumni's Institute for Effective Governance, "Bold Leadership, Real…

The American Youth Policy Forum (AYPF) has worked closely with stakeholders at the national, state, local, and institutional level to develop a deeper understanding of what alternative education settings do well, areas for improvement, opportunities for innovation, and issues requiring further inquiry. Collaboration with these stakeholders, as…

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires all states to collect and report school-level expenditure information, state education agencies (SEAs) are considering whether to set statewide rules for local education agencies (LEAs) around how to assign expenditures. Specifically, many states are wondering whether they need to standardize a practice…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of Swedish school leaders' relational and management work orientation, in terms of both techno and socio structure dimensions. The background is the neoliberal policy regime, underpinned by OECD and PISA, and an increased focus on school leaders' management work.…

Online discussions have been proliferating in US higher education. Due to its widespread incorporation into university courses, instructors have been making efforts to design effective online discussions to enhance student learning. Ground rules play an important role in regulating student behaviors and performance in online discussions. This…

This article argues for the necessity of fugitivity in teacher education to interrupt and subvert the current regime of standardization in public education. Centering the voices of teachers and teacher candidates, this qualitative case study explores the importance of unsanctioned spaces for destabilizing co-optations of multiculturalism and…

In 2010, the Massachusetts Legislature lifted the cap on the number of charter schools that the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) can authorize in low-performing school districts. The "smart cap" requires the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to rank district performance (based on student outcomes)…

States and districts have expressed interest in administering the ACT® to 10th-grade students. Given that the ACT was designed to be administered in the spring of 11th grade or fall of 12th grade, the appropriateness of this use should be evaluated. As such, the focus of this paper is to summarize empirical evidence evaluating the use of the ACT…

The Higher Education Act (HEA) of 1965 was meant to unlock the secret to upward economic mobility by granting more Americans the chance to obtain a college degree. Nonetheless, the originators failed to recognize how this dramatic shift in federal higher education policy would affect generations to come. Today the federal government originates or…

The guidebook is divided into seven parts. Part I provides an overview of the Enabling Component and places the concept in the context of current restructuring initiatives. Part II offers an overview of the process for introducing and adapting the Component at a site using a formal diffusion model. A diffusion model is a tool for organizational…

Strong school-community partnerships are essential for a world-class, 21st century education, and more and more communities across the country are creating such partnerships--from Oakland, CA, to Evansville, IN, to Hartford, CT. In this document, the Coalition for Community Schools and the National Association of School Psychologists outline nine…