The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires state accountability systems to include indicators of "school quality and student success" along with indicators of academic outcomes. The new law provides an important opportunity for states to broaden the definition of student success to include measures of students' social-emotional, as…

Policies directed at improving the educational system are often based upon a rationalistic view of the processes of teaching and schooling. The courts and other branches of government are devoting more attention to regulating schooling. As the rights of students have been articulated through litigation and legislation, the duties of schools have…

This paper focuses on ways in which one state policy for improving education--standard-setting through testing mechanisms--affects the classroom teacher-learner relationship. That uniform policy-making is problematic is clear from observations of 43 Mid-Atlantic school district teachers. Responding to three types of standards, 45 percent found…