Across the country, urban school districts are moving beyond industrial-era systems by creating "innovation" or "partnership" schools that have the freedom to reinvent the way they educate students. The Progressive Policy Institute released a how-to guide for legislators, district leaders, and advocates who want to create more…

Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

Policymakers and researchers often talk about "autonomous schools" as if there's a single, agreed-upon definition of what that means. In reality, there's no standard design for autonomous school policies, and school autonomy can mean a lot of different things. The policies that states have enacted vary widely in terms of their goals, the…

The purpose of this technical assistance paper is to provide a description of the procedures used to determine school grades for the 2014 school year. Florida's current school accountability system originated with state legislation passed in 1999 (the "A+ Plan") and has been revised periodically to reflect increased standards and…

The Council of Chief State School Officers' "Accommodations Manual: How to Select, Administer, and Evaluate the Use of Accommodations for Instruction and Assessment of Students with Disabilities" was first developed to establish guidelines for states to use for the selection, administration, and evaluation of accommodations for…

This "Report Card to the Public" is published in accordance with Alaska Statute 14.03.120 for the school year 2011-2012. Under state law, each school district is required to report information about its plans and performance to its community. This report includes a statewide summary of performance results. It reports the status of public…

As a former school law attorney and a former superintendent, the authors were constantly concerned about potential liability when a student's constitutional rights may have been violated or when a student was physically injured. While educators can be held liable for infringing on students' rights and for negligence that causes students physical…

Under Rhode Island's new School Accountability for Learning and Teaching (SALT) program, the state gathers information from such sources as statewide performance assessments, in-depth community surveys, and computerized, comparative analyses of school expenditures. Article offers basic guidelines for program evaluation. (MLF)

Reports the first decade of diverse accomplishments in public education and state government by the North Carolina Center for Public Policy Research. The accomplishments described include the importance of research findings in influencing governmental decisions, public education about government and policy issues, and monitoring legislative…

This review of statutory and case law contributing to the current litigious environment of colleges and universities identifies specific critical legal precedents affecting college presidents, especially increased personal liability. A list of 14 recommendations is attached. (DB)

This primer is designed to help charter school leaders in Ohio in coordinating testing and test data reporting procedures as required by state and federal guidelines. The report discusses the roles and responsibilities of charter schools under Ohio's new accountability system and what charter schools need to know to administer the tests of the…

A growing emphasis on teacher accountability, coupled with declining enrollments and reduced revenues, has increased the importance of teacher evaluations as a basis for staffing decisions, even though there is no clear definition of teacher effectiveness. Accordingly, legal standards are provided for the procedural and substantive issues of due…

The paper examines policy implications of recent trends toward state mandated assessment of higher education services. Two differing purposes of assessment, that of academic improvement and that of accountability, are distinguished. Current trends in how policy makers and higher educators approach a "new accountability" include seeing…

The North Carolina School Improvement Panel was created in August 1995 to frame a single plan for improving public education in North Carolina by pulling together the four major reform initiatives already under way in the state. The resulting plan, as presented to the State Board of Education in 1997, has four priorities: high student performance;…

Most states are either working on or have adopted statewide standards. A significant number of states plan to link their standards to rigorous new assessments and accountability measures. Districts engaged in standards-based reform must routinely analyze data on student achievement. Sidebars list sources and describe a survey of district programs.…