Productivity gains in higher education won't be made just by improving cost effectiveness or even performance. They need to be documented, communicated, and integrated into a strategic agenda to increase attainment. This requires special attention to "accountability" for productivity, meaning public presentation and communication of evidence about…

The number of leadership education and development programs has increased substantially over the past few decades. However, deliberate assessment strategies aimed at understanding actual student development have not kept pace. The primary reason for this limitation likely involves the challenges that are associated with this type of assessment.…

As more institutions of higher education engage in the practice of leadership education, the effective assessment of these efforts lags behind due to a variety of factors. Without an intentional assessment plan, leadership educators are liable to make one or more of several common errors in assessing their programs and activities. This article…

Love it or hate it, assessment has become the new reality on college and university campuses. Although measuring student achievement of course outcomes is not an easy task, assessment does not need to be a complex or painful experience. This paper describes the methods used to assess student achievement of the stated course outcomes in…

The Academy for Educational Development (AED) sent a research team to Western Kentucky University (WKU) on June 19-20, 2008 to conduct interviews with individuals who play important roles in the university's teacher preparation program (see Appendix A). These interviews, along with additional documentation provided by WKU and identified by the AED…

This report presents the results of an innovative study designed to provide a more detailed understanding of how parents and their teenage children were affected by the Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards program, a comprehensive conditional cash transfer program. The three-year program, launched by the Center for Economic Opportunity in the Mayor's…

To support the implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation invested in the development and dissemination of two tools aimed at operationalizing classroom instruction based on the standards: (1) the Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC)'s Framework; and (2) the Math Design Collaborative (MDC)'s…

The Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) provides funding for states and territories to provide instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), Adult Basic Education (ABE), and Adult Secondary Education (ASE) to adults in need of these literacy services. California State Budget Act…

While education accountability systems emphasize teacher quality as a prerequisite for student learning, education administrators have struggled to staff low-performing schools with effective teachers. Fueled in part by the federal Teacher Incentive Fund, compensation reforms have gained center stage status among strategies aimed at improving…

This paper reports on the perceptions of teaching economists of the nature, implementation and result of outcomes assessment/assurance of learning (AOL) in higher education. The results reported in the paper are based on over eight hundred responses to a web-based survey of teaching economists. While there is little consensus among economists…

Three main purposes provided the foundation for this study. The first purpose was to investigate academic achievement through analyses of data obtained through formal and informal assessments among kindergarten through eighth grade students who participated in a Head Start program, center-based care program, or home-based care prior to school…

As part of a grant-funded project, the authors have designed an alternative certification program, E = mc[superscript 2], funded by U.S. Department of Education under its Transition to Teaching Program. Before beginning their student teaching, participants conduct observations, interviews, tutoring, small group instruction, and isolated whole…

This study evaluated participatory equity in varying thematic types of living-learning programs and, for a subset of student group x program type combinations found to be below equity, used latent mean modeling to determine whether statistically significant mean differences existed between the outcome scores of living-learning participants and…

The purpose of this mixed-methods explanatory case study was to determine the impact of a reduced school calendar on student achievement for students in grades 9 through 12 in two rural school districts in Virginia and to explore meanings associated with this change. The study focused on two research questions: how does student performance during…

The rate of doctoral degree completion, compared to all other degrees, is the lowest in the academy, with only 57 percent of doctoral students completing their degree within a ten-year period. In the science, engineering, and mathematics (SEM) fields, 62 percent of the male students complete their doctoral degree in ten years, which is better than…