For over 20 years, educators and administrators across North America have heatedly debated the value of large-scale student assessment. Throughout the history of schooling in British Columbia, large-scale student assessment outcomes have traditionally served to inform broader societal goals. Realistically, "assessment of" group learning (as opposed to classroom-based "assessment for" individual learning) will continue as the government's key focus. We also raise several...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Student Evaluation, Measurement, Academic Achievement, Testing,...
First Nations people have both a Constitutional and a Treaty right to education; however, the Crown's jurisdictional obligations to provide educational services have not lead to similar educational opportunities and attainment achievement for First Nations students as compared to Canadian students in provincial schools. Canada's Auditor General, in 2000, stated that Indian and Northern Affairs Canada could not demonstrate that it reached the objective to assist First Nations students on reserve...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, American Indians, Educational Needs, Educational Attainment,...
The results of a survey on teachers' perceptions regarding Florida's test-based accountability program raised serious doubts about whether testing has precipitated positive outcomes in upper-elementary students' learning. Nearly all of the 708 Florida upper-elementary teachers who completed the survey reported that testing had a negative effect or no effect on student learning in reading, writing, and mathematics. Factors associated with students' decrease in learning are discussed and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Testing, Accountability, Teacher Surveys, Teacher Attitudes, Outcomes of Education,...
Today, school administrators face many challenges. These include pressures to increase all students' achievement in core content areas and to prepare students to be technology literate. In addition to these academic needs, principals are concerned for the security and safety of their students and ultimately seek to provide a positive school climate conducive to learning. Administrators in Michigan have pulled together in a statewide effort to meet these challenges with the help of technology....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academic Achievement, Leadership, Accountability, Educational Improvement,...
In this essay, the authors explore the structures, processes, and messages that accountability reforms communicate about the goals and means of coming to know history. In other words, how do existing history standards and formal curricula officialize certain orientations toward historical knowledge and traditions through which that knowledge is taught? Specifically, they begin by examining the "National History Standards" and the "History and Social Science Standards of Learning...
Topics: ERIC Archive, National Standards, Social Sciences, Academic Standards, Instructional Materials,...
Many school leaders today, not to mention many teachers, view "accountability" as a loathsome political monster. Looming over educators, insensitive to the many problems they face, it wields the carrot of rewards in one hand and the club of sanctions in the other. Some educators even blame accountability for perverting their noble purposes, twisting their sensibilities, and corrupting their integrity. The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability system seeks to improve all...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Instructional Leadership, Accountability, Federal Legislation, Educational...
This paper explains the current reforms in basic and higher education in the Philippines. Specifically, internal and external enablers in the educational environment were reviewed as justifications of the reforms both at the national level as well at the individual teacher. The reforms were treated in the light of four perspectives in the measurement of quality namely; the reputational view, the resources view, the outcomes view and the value-added view. (Contains 4 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Higher Education, Educational Environment, Educational Change,...
From an Invitational Education perspective, e-learning will only succeed as an educative environment if educators are able to provide an e-learning environment that preserves dignity and encourages communication. The converse: using an online environment to "throw information" at students has the opposite effect; it is experienced as deeply disinviting. This article identifies some of the more common disinviting practices currently being experienced by learners who are new to an...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Online Courses, Distance Education, Computer Uses in Education, Educational...
This article presents an excerpt of a declaration from the United States Department of Education's "Strategic Plan: 2002-2007." The declaration signifies in no uncertain terms that the battle waged by critics of alternative research methods continues, and is likely to intensify. The denigration of research methods which decline to adhere to the trappings of logical positivism may have begun with Rene Descartes, but the origins of the dispute between positivists and post-positivists...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Strategic Planning, Rhetorical Criticism, Public Education, Educational Research,...
Teacher education students placed in clinical settings for methods coursework need adequate guidance in order to make the most of their experiences. Guidance in terms of teaching, reflections, clinical settings, and other related activities offers these candidates a realistic view of teacher, teaching, and learning. Oftentimes, the clinical portion of a typical methods course is pass/fail. We discuss the use of a Clinical Connections Notebook to document students' activities and make them...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Guidance, Cooperating Teachers, Methods Courses, Student Teachers,...
The effects of recent moves toward national testing regimes are being felt at the classroom level, where teachers feel compelled to "teach to the tests." Thus, they are now accountable in two ways: to students (and their understandings) and to the public and to the school boards (for improving overall student test scores). It is important to understand how teachers assess their students in response to these pressures. In this article, the authors report on findings from a year-long...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Accountability, Educational Practices, Case Studies, Student Evaluation, Teacher...
To define what is special about the education of students with severe disabilities, this article provides a snapshot of research-based practices that are relevant to the "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) focus on accountability. The NCLB requirement to assess all students in reading, math, and science is contrasted to the functional approach typical of skill acquisition research for this population. The concept of adequate yearly progress is addressed by reviewing the types of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Strategies, Federal Legislation, Educational Improvement, Accountability,...
The increasing use of school advisory councils for budgetary decision making is an obvious trend in new patterns of school governance. As decision makers, council members are lobbied by groups and individuals desiring funding for their particular interests. Problems that need attention are judiciously considered as competing interests vie for limited resources. A challenge then for the councils is to make spending choices that are most likely to improve learning outcomes for all students....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Interests, Governance, Accountability, Organizational Development, Advisory...
Over the past few years, as part of the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) reform on the one hand, and the increased demands for school accountability on the other, more and more schools have launched a school website aimed at enhancing educational activities, supporting student-teacher communication, contributing to school marketing efforts, and fostering accountability to and collaboration with the school's constituency. A large body of research on ICT-based pedagogical and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, School Organization, Web Sites, Internet, Content Analysis, Educational Environment,...
Schools employ educational technology to comply with pressures for greater accountability and efficiency in conducting operations. Specifically, schools use "management information systems" designed to automate data collection of student attendance, grades, test scores, and so on. These management information systems (MIS) employed widespread use of technology to enable effective and efficient school operations in order to promote school accountability. In this case study, the authors...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Attendance, Management Information Systems, Educational Technology, Accountability,...
Community colleges enroll nearly half the undergraduates in the U.S. These institutions play a significant role in the academic, social, political, and economic future of our nation. As historically open admission institutions, with a primary focus on providing access to higher education, they have been pressed in recent decades--as has all of higher education--to be more accountable and demonstrate the benefits they offer and at what cost. A common measure of accountability is student...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Access to Education, Community Colleges, Open Enrollment, College...
The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived effectiveness of leadership in a Missouri rural K-8 school with a high incidence of poverty that consistently met federal and state accountability mandates. The concepts of accountability as measured by student achievement, the unique educational needs of children from poverty, and the challenges of the rural school location were viewed through the lens of leadership. Ten practices of leadership that lead to consistent student achievement...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Case Studies, Rural Schools, Educational Needs, Mentors, Poverty, Academic...
The increased emphasis on standards-based school accountability since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 is focusing critical attention on the professional development of school principals and their ability to meet the challenges of improving student outcomes. While rural school districts are dealing with many of the same issues facing urban districts, there are unique challenges that rural school principals face. However, effective professional development that addresses the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, School Restructuring, Federal Legislation, Educational Change,...
For many small rural school districts across America, the effort to attract and retain quality teachers continues to be a major concern. Schools located in what are considered to be "hard to staff" areas experience the most difficult. While not all communities face the problems of inadequate teacher supply, many small and rural school districts recognize this as a continuing critical issue. A variety of factors contribute to the problems of recruiting and retaining teachers in small...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Teacher Supply and Demand, School Districts, Rural Education, Teacher...
This qualitative study examined the effects of a high-stakes, standardized test on teachers' instructional planning at a rural school. The research addressed this question: How do mandated curricular standards affect teachers' instructional planning and content selection? Ethnographic interviews (Creswell, 1998) examined four secondary teachers' perceptions of the effects of high-stakes standardized tests on their work. Case study methodology (Yin, 1994) guided the analysis of the data. Each...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Instructional Development, Rural Schools, State Legislation, Standardized Tests, High...
The Principals Excellence Program (PEP), a cohort-based professional development project for administrator-certified practitioners, is one of 24 projects across the United States supported by federal funds from the No Child Left Behind legislation. The three-year program is conducted through a partnership between Pike County School District, a high-need rural system in Central Appalachia, and the University of Kentucky, located 150 miles away. A major goal for PEP is improved school leadership...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mentors, Federal Legislation, Holistic Evaluation, Leadership Effectiveness, School...
Curricular reform is an intense process. Broad-based reform--like that at the statewide level--takes on complexities that may not be easily predictable. Two states, Texas and Florida, with a large diversity of gifted populations, learn from each other as they experience creating curriculum standards for their gifted students. This article addresses the issues and dilemmas faced when committees of gifted educators in both states began redefining and designing their gifted curricula. It follows...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Elementary Secondary Education, Accountability, Outcomes of...
Modern teachers live in age of accountability, in which their success as educators is determined by individual and group mastery of specific standards demonstrated by standardized test performance. Even before No Child Left Behind (NCLB), standards and measures were used to determine if schools and students were successful. But NCLB has increased the pace, intensity, and high stakes of this trend. Gifted and talented students are significantly impacted by these local or state proficiency...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Federal Legislation, Talent, Standardized Tests, Accountability,...
The disproportionate representation of minority students in special education programs has been a persistent problem in American education. Being labeled as disabled often has a negative impact on social relationships and self-concept and long-term outcomes such as graduation and employment. Disproportionate identification of students from certain ethnic and racial groups begins in general education when teachers view a child's poor academic performance and/or behavior as a problem inherent to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Racial Bias, Disproportionate Representation, Student Placement, Identification,...
In this article, the authors present a case study that is an exploration of credential candidates' attitudes toward a teaching performance assessment as a measure of their teaching ability, and the impact on faculty instructional decisions, practice, and attitudes toward the assessment. This study generated both qualitative and quantitative data. Results revealed that assessment, discussion, sharing results among faculty, credential candidates and partner schools can begin to open the dialogue...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Credentials, Performance Based Assessment, Policy Analysis, Qualitative Research,...
Evidence suggests that student teaching is one of the most influential components of a teacher education program, and the cooperating teacher exerts the greatest influence on a student teacher. Therefore, it is vital to understand how the role of experienced teachers is affected by the implementation of a professional development school (PDS) as these individuals assume greater responsibility in the education of prospective teachers and in their own professional development. This paper...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Teaching, Student Teachers, Professional Development Schools, Teacher...
We queried Florida elementary teachers about how they perceived their principals' professional and personal inviting leadership behaviors during a time when many teachers and principals felt a lot of pressure due to test-based accountability. Despite the pressure, teachers reported that their principals demonstrated fairly high levels of inviting leadership behaviors. Further, we found a positive relationship between elementary teachers' perceptions of their principal's inviting leadership...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Job Satisfaction, Academic Achievement, Educational Practices, Accountability,...
The author of this article challenges a common assumption made by both critics and defenders of standardized-testing technology (or psychometry), namely that standardized tests "measure" something (culture, ability, etc.). It argues that psychometric practice cannot be classified as a form of measurement and instead is best understood as a marker of social value, an inherently political act. The chapter concludes by suggesting the significance of this argument for debates regarding...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Assessment, Social Values, Psychometrics, Standardized Tests,...
The authors report a study in which they examined how principals utilize instructional leadership in high schools within a Hispanic majority context. The emphasis was on students' academic performance, goal development and implementation, school culture, and instructional management, which make up the broader theoretical framework of school leadership. Following a multiple case study approach, two successful high schools in the south of a central state participated in the study. These schools...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Orientation, Leadership Effectiveness, Instructional Leadership, Principals, Hispanic...
Health educators are providing students with the health knowledge and health skills that are prerequisites for becoming health literate and using assessment tools to demonstrate effectiveness. In the school health educators' world, accountability equates to improved student knowledge and skills. To expect them to be held accountable for students' behavior would be professional suicide. In this paper, the authors intend to show how and why educators have adopted a standards-based philosophy of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Comprehensive School Health Education, Public Health, Accountability, Educational...
Randall Eberts explores the role of teachers unions in public education. He focuses particularly on how collective bargaining agreements shape the delivery of educational services, how unions affect both student achievement and the cost of providing quality education, and how they support educational reform efforts. Eberts's synthesis of the empirical research concludes that union bargaining raises teachers' compensation, improves their working conditions, and enhances their employment...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Standardized Tests, Collective Bargaining, Educational Quality, Unions, Educational...
Richard Murnane observes that the American ideal of equality of educational opportunity has for years been more the rhetoric than the reality of the nation's political life. Children living in poverty, he notes, tend to be concentrated in low-performing schools staffed by ill-equipped teachers. They are likely to leave school without the skills needed to earn a decent living in a rapidly changing economy. Murnane describes three initiatives that the federal government could take to improve the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Poverty, Graduation Rate, Federal Legislation, School Choice, Program Effectiveness,...
Even though federal laws have had a major influence on foster care and child welfare policy for more than 40 years, additional reforms are needed to ensure safe and stable families for children in care. This article describes the complex array of policies that shape federal foster care and observes: A number of federal policies addressing issues such as housing, health care, welfare, social security benefits, taxes, and foster care reimbursement to the states, form the federal foster care...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Safety, Courts, Child Welfare, Foster Care, Public Policy, Family Environment,...
How can physical educators make connections to the larger community? This article discusses how physical educators can better inform community physical-activity leaders and coaches about appropriate instructional practices and how they can inform students about activities available in the community. It also offers suggestions for how to invite the community into the school and promote the use of school facilities for community activities for the benefit of all involved.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Facilities, Physical Education Teachers, Teaching Methods, School...
This study focuses on three new teachers, Arnie, Andrea, and Frank, who are New York City Teaching Fellows (NYCTF), a program of alternative teacher recruitment and certification that is in its third year at an urban public college in New York City. This study focuses on just three of the Fellows in order to have a more intense look into the thinking of new teachers who have made a commitment to teach in poor urban schools for two years and who are now choosing to either remain urban teachers,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Urban Schools, Urban Teaching, Public Colleges, Teacher Recruitment, Alternative...
The author of this article describes why, while as a student in the Northeastern University teacher preparation program, she chose not to become a teacher in the public schools. She felt that her philosophy of education, stemming from the concept of the person-centered classroom as espoused by Carl Rogers and Jerome Freiberg in "Freedom to Learn," clashed with today's accountability-driven educational climate. She argues that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is increasingly stepping...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Philosophy, High Stakes Tests, Accountability, Independent Study,...
These are challenging times for teachers. Mixed messages, conflicting demands, and increasing needs on all fronts surround them. Each day, teachers face increasing requirements and significant pressures on their daily practice from administrators and policymakers. It is hard to be, or remain, a teacher of quality committed to one's ideals. In this article, based upon data from interviews and observations drawn from a larger study, the author explores the experiences of one teacher as she...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Nontraditional Education, Standardized Tests, Science Teachers, Accountability, High...
This article argues that, with all of its language about reaching "100% proficiency for all students in twelve years" as an "ambitious, but achievable" goal, the current federal administration seems to be on the side of the children in its No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), but further investigation reveals that many of the practices mentioned in the act may cause more harm than good. The key component in NCLB is to establish an "accountable" education system in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Academic Achievement, Politics of Education, Accountability,...
Teacher preparation, now acknowledged for its impact on K-12 student achievement (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Darling-Hammond, Berry, & Thoreson, 2000), needs to be part of the discussions about ways to address emerging issues with testing and accountability. What then do teacher educators who work with those preparing to teach do to guide their students about their responsibilities with regard to high-stakes tests? How do they help teacher candidates learn to balance externally driven mandates...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Testing, High Stakes...
The merits of a marketplace model for public education have been among the most prominent themes in education policy discussions over the last two decades. Advocates of market approaches to education reform contend that creating a market in educational services will foster competition among providers and thus spur delivery of better services at the same or lower cost than providing them through traditional public schools. It is clear that the policy preferences of the past 25 years have...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Privatization, Public Education, Elementary Secondary Education, Federal Legislation,...
It is imperative that educational administrators continually examine the issues that confront teachers on a day-to-day basis, keeping in mind how they can best assist their faculty in maintaining the focus on their students and the overall instructional process. The issues presented in the following discussion are provided as a sampling of concerns that are being raised in respect to the efficacy and support of teachers, their ability to teach, and the critical role they play in the educational...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Effectiveness, Teacher Morale, Federal Legislation, Teacher Attitudes,...
Increasingly, the viability of university programs to develop in school leaders the knowledge, skills and dispositions needed to bring about reform are being questioned. This article uses case study methodology for looking at how an increasing emphasis on collaborative inquiry in one university's program influenced a school principal several years after that principal had completed his master's degree program in educational leadership. The principal explains his approach to accountability and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Instructional Leadership, Educational Improvement, Principals,...
This paper recounts one instructor's importing action research into teaching to improve a Tier II Professional Administrative Services Credential program at a public university in California. The state and local context is described, why and how the action research was conducted, and the lessons that emerged about what advanced students need, prefer, and value are included. The findings of this case are of interest to leadership preparation faculty in general, and specifically to those faculty...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Credentials, Action Research, Leadership, Public Colleges, Student Evaluation,...
This article is a case study of a highly effective school leader in an urban city in Connecticut who has created a successful learning community. Through a one-year study, which involved interviews and observations on a regular basis, the author ascertained the leadership practices and patterns of this leader that have led to a successful learning community where teachers, staff, parents, and children are valued and treated with respect, and children are achieving academically. The article...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Urban Education, Case Studies, Parent Participation, Cooperation,...
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 has increased emphasis on "closing the gap" between the achievement of African-American and disadvantaged children and that of their respective peers. Using the 2001 results of Kentucky's accountability tests (e.g., CTBS-5, KCCT), Chi-square analyses were performed to determine whether, when disaggregated by quartile (CTBS-5) or proficiency-level (KCCT), a significant difference existed for each school between the distributions of disadvantaged and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Poverty, Federal Legislation, Disadvantaged Youth, Academic Achievement, School Size,...
The number and complexity of state and federal regulations governing U.S. colleges and universities is on the rise. Consumerism, soaring tuition costs, burgeoning student loan debt and the high expectations of parents are all converging to put higher education under increased scrutiny. Two related issues: students feeling like they do not get their money's worth and dismay over excessive executive pay, exacerbate this situation. These two trends--educational malpractice and executive...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Educational Malpractice, Tuition, Accountability, Elementary...
There has been a surge of attention to issues of access and success in higher education. The U.S. Education Secretary's Commission on the Future of Higher Education has discussed it. State policymakers are proposing new goals and accountability systems to address these issues. Even the mainstream press has been increasingly critical of higher education's perceived turning away from its longstanding promise to serve as a means for hardworking low-income students to learn their way into the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Low Income Groups, Graduation Rate, Accountability, Student...
The Spellings Commission report calls for greater access to higher education for low- and moderate-income students, greater transparency in the way higher education works and greater accountability for producing results. These recommendations are all significant in their own right, but the three concepts also converge to provide powerful support for an important new idea: requiring greater transparency and accountability of colleges for whether or not they are honoring a commitment to the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Democratic Values, Accountability, Access to Education, Low Income...
When the author testified last year before the national Commission on the Future of Higher Education created by U.S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, he congratulated the commission for training a spotlight on the key issues of affordability, accessibility and accountability, while pointing out what he felt were some of the shortcomings of the metrics that purport to measure these. He particularly objects to the notion that college is simply high school for older kids. Approaches that...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Higher Education, Graduation Rate, Academic Achievement, High Stakes Tests,...
According to a February 9, 2006 "New York Times" story headlined, "Panel Explores Standard Tests for Colleges," a new accountability era is descending upon a resistant higher education domain. The story describes the deliberations of a Bush-appointed commission considering imposition of standardized tests on college students. Ten days earlier, the "Boston Globe" reported that Massachusetts community colleges have a three-year graduation rate of 16 percent. Last...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Colleges, Graduation Rate, Outcomes of Education, Standardized Tests, Accountability,...