The Board of Trustees of the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) asked the Council of the Great City Schools, the nation's primary coalition of large urban school systems, to examine the staffing levels of the school system and determine whether the numbers of staff members employed were appropriate for a district serving as many students as…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) "Standards Movement Gaining Steam": Duncan Announces Plan to Commit Up to $350 Million for Assessments…

As education stakeholders look ahead to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) reauthorization, there is near-universal consensus that the current federal accountability and school improvement systems need to be reinvented, infused with more and better data, and tailored to meet the individual needs of schools and students. Now,…

This paper addresses the possible content and organization of a National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) "Mega Report" based on the most populous five states and the largest metropolitan areas in each of them, namely California, Florida, Illinois, New York, and Texas. It is not a "design" but is much more than an outline,…

This article describes the transformational learning of our educational leadership faculty team as we developed assessments for an equity-centered pedagogy. This piece is taken from a larger study of new leaders' action research projects. The Equity Plan is designed to disrupt inequitable schooling practices by engaging students of educational…

School vouchers provide funds to parents to enable them to enroll their children in private schools and, as a result, are one of the most controversial education reforms in the United States. Among the many points of contention is whether voucher programs in fact improve student achievement. Most evaluations of such programs have found at least…

The decision to attend university is influenced by a large set of factors, ranging from economic considerations that affect affordability to family characteristics such as parental education levels. We examine the relationship between university participation and various economic and non-economic variables over the past twenty-five years in…

The problems faced by a postmodern European Union, due to internationalisation of the economy, loss of competitiveness, rise in unemployment and negative demographic outcomes, call for transformations able to promote excellence in knowledge, technology and economic effectiveness, which also promote social cohesion. Thus, investment in human…

Millennium Development Goals were established by the United Nations to help underdeveloped countries to overcome problems of illiteracy, poverty, low health status and quality of life. Much emphasis was placed on the attainment of MDG targets in education because of its pivotal role in national development. The targets include education for all…

There are three purposes for evaluation: evaluation for action to aid the decision making process, evaluation for understanding to further enhance enlightenment and evaluation for control to ensure compliance to standards. This article argues that the primary function of evaluation in the "Catherine Wheel" computer-based assessment (CBA)…

A study of 21 flagship public universities and four entire state systems (in Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, and Virginia), conducted by the authors, demonstrates that if this country is to regain its leadership in higher education, it must fix two interwoven problems: (1) the stagnant level of overall educational attainment, as measured by…

As early childhood education continues to gain prominence on the agendas of policy makers across the globe, members of the field of early childhood education are concerned that these reforms will create new governing discourses that restrict how early educators are defined and limit their work with young children. While these neo-liberal policies…

The purpose of this study is to determine the degree of instructor' assessment practices in the realization of the learning-teaching process in its various stages, in the identification of expected outcomes and various other practices in the same context by taking student views into account. The study was undertaken with 243 students attending…

It is widely assumed that the constraints of timed essay exams will make it virtually impossible for students to engage in the major hallmarks of the writing process, especially revision, in testing situations. This paper presents the results of a study conducted at Washington State University in the Spring of 2008. The study examined the…

One of the most significant changes in the field of education in this information age is the paradigm shift from teacher-centered to learner-centered education. Along with this paradigm shift, understanding of students' e-learning adoption behavior among various countries is urgently needed. South Korea's dense student population and high…