The ambiguous policy-concepts 'effectivity' and 'needs' were introduced to Finnish VET. This research utilises cultural historical activity theory to analyse how different conflicting motives emerge within student counselling and to discuss the prospective development of VET. Managerialist approaches to accountability and competency-based training…

Student learning outcomes have been used to measure a teacher's accountability for student learning in the evaluation of teacher effectiveness. This study employed a survey research design and investigated the views of teachers and administrators regarding using student learning objectives (SLOs) and classroom observations in the evaluation of…

The purpose of this study was to examine the presence of continuous improvement and improvement science in the Consolidated State Plans required by ESSA. Through an exploratory qualitative content analysis, we examined 52 state plans to determine the extent education policies encourage professional educators to use a continuous improvement and…

Community colleges serve as crucial gateways to social and economic prosperity for millions of Americans, providing opportunities for career stability and social advancement. The success of this educational pathway hinges on the seamless alignment of a college's mission and goals, creating an environment conducive to faculty excellence in…

The Region 15 Comprehensive Center (R15CC) partnered with the California Department of Education to create resources for local education agencies (LEAs) to guide the development of well-written goals for their Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAPs). The LCAP is a three-year plan that California LEAs use to set goals, plan actions, and…

This paper uses the concept of glocality to illuminate the ways in which the global operates as a hegemonic social construct for settler and colonial states to infiltrate and repress other local epistemological domains to assert and maintain control. Identifying four prominent and interconnected themes in the glocality literature: developing deep…

In the United States, most students attend a public school in a district overseen by a democratically elected school board. In political science, school boards are often portrayed as ten thousand democracies (Berkman and Plutzer, 2005). School board members are often described as "citizens-policymakers" because they "constitute a…

Since the 1960s, business leaders and educators used the idea of "goal setting theory" as a guide to success. Teachers who implemented goal setting strategies contributed to student success and achievement. During my study, I found little existing literature focused on academic goal setting implementation for students in Tennessee rural…

This dissertation explores the concepts of leading operational indicators and accountability at a corporation, a global contract manufacturer, with the intent to understand what the knowledge, motivational, and organizational influences impacting overall performance. The study featured a mixed-methods, quantitative and qualitative approach…

Centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) exist in dynamic contexts and need to be agile, with skilled, adaptable teams to prepare for and respond to changes. In this article, we provide CTL leaders with relevant and eminently practical strategies from the human resources (HR) literature, offering guidance in the four areas of organizational…

This qualitative case study focuses on the impact of neoliberal education reform on an urban charter school serving students of Color. This study has two main objectives: to examine how neoliberal reform influences the goal-oriented actions of data meetings (DMs) in an urban elementary school and engages in a formative intervention methodology to…

School goal setting is often described as a key leadership practice for school improvement. Important for the effectiveness of goal setting is the close monitoring of progress. This article examines goal-monitoring practices in three schools that were seen as being effective and contributing to improvement. The findings highlight the importance of…

Wisconsin's teacher evaluation approach departs from most states by articulating principles for a learning-centered system and discouraging districts from using evaluation results for accountability purposes. This study presents findings from a longitudinal analysis of practices within fourteen schools across five districts. Findings demonstrate…

While there is a growing level of demand for accountability and documentation of services provided to students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing (DHH), there is a paucity of evidence on the nature of such support; who (personnel), what (content), and how (delivery). This study describes Teacher of the Deaf (ToD) perspectives on current classroom…

Scholars have documented the effects of accountability policies on student outcomes and, to a lesser extent, instruction. Beyond test preparation and curriculum narrowing, little empirical evidence has examined the relationship between policy and pedagogy. Guided by social cognitive and achievement goal theories, this study explored the…