In her Forum piece, "What's an Adult Numeracy Teacher to Teach? Negotiating the Complexity of Adult Numeracy Instruction," Lynda Ginsburg set the stage of the current problem (poor numeracy levels in American adults) and the bevy of standards, legislation, and new exams that have recently been developed to address it. Ginsburg also…

Jill Chouinard, in her article "The Case for Participatory Evaluation in an Era of Accountability" (this issue, p. 237), may be re-iterating what has often been claimed and arguably is infused already in much of our theory and practice: the value of participatory approaches in some, perhaps many situations. She summarizes these claims eloquently…

As states move to implement the Common Core State Standards, key challenges remain. One is how to make sure a high school diploma acknowledges what students have achieved. Should states adopt a two tiered diploma, in which students who pass internationally aligned Common Core exams at a career- and college-ready level receive an…

In "The Case for Participatory Evaluation in an Era of Accountability" (this issue), Jill Chouinard highlights seven tensions between the participatory and technocratic approaches to evaluation. She suggests that there is a need to create opportunities for more participatory approaches to evaluation. In this essay, I suggest that the era of…

In the original paper, it was argued that while there is an array of methods and methodologies available, their use is delimited by the culture of accountability that prevails in public sector institutions, a fact that is particularly problematic given the complexity and diversity of evaluation contexts today. This short rejoinder, to responses…

The current de-democratization process in which the world now apparently finds itself ". . .represents the longest continuous period of deterioration in the nearly 40-year history of Freedom House's annual assessment of the state of political and civil liberties in every country of the world". As Gilley (2010: 161) observes, ". . .the hottest…

Right now, accountability is the elephant in the room for many engaged in lifelong learning. It is difficult to find fault with the persuasive, evidence-based case for promoting lifelong learning so lucidly articulated in the main report of the Inquiry into the Future for Lifelong Learning. "Learning Through Life" deftly combines rigorous and…

The author of an indicator that tests evaluation system compliance with good governance principles addresses the UNDP's response to his article by offering an empirical test of the UNDP's commitment to reform. While the UNDP Evaluations Office claims to be working on reforms, the test exposes the unwillingness of the UNDP Evaluations Office to…

The author enjoyed reading Katharine Hay's ambitious and humbling visions for evaluation field building in South Asia. She has successfully positioned herself on a high mountain with a wonderful set of binoculars that enable her to see the entire evaluation landscape of South Asia. She magically sees and describes significant historical forces and…

Leadership and leadership development are popular topics today. Concurrent with the construction of leadership theory, leadership development has emerged as a practice, with programs, consultants, reports, and networking opportunities proliferating. Given the reality of limited resources, it is critical that investments in and approaches to…

Federal policy directed to teaching and teachers is the subject of this review, which is organized around: (1) recruitment; (2) training; (3) accountability; (4) incentives; (5) qualifications; (6) class size reduction; (teacher working conditions; and (8) human resource management and the overall coordination of teacher policy. For each theme,…

This blueprint focuses on the policies that connect professional development activities and that support and make possible an effective implementation of a state system of professional development. It highlights policy principles and essential policy areas that build or sustain an integrated system--a system that ensures quality in all settings in…

Two proposals in the bill currently circulating to reauthorize No Child Left Behind seem to be shoe-ins for making their way into federal law. The impetus behind both proposals is to help poor kids by making sure that districts spend as much money on them as gets spent on rich kids. Going against the grain, the National Council on Teacher Quality…

This paper presents interviews with Dr. Jon Mueller and Dr. Paula Harris. Dr. Jon Mueller is a professor of Psychology at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Dr. Paula Harris is a professor in the Department of Language, Literature, and Arts at Jackson Community College in Jackson, Michigan. In these interviews, they present a…

Teachers are under scrutiny as never before. Politicians, parents and pupils invest a great deal of capital in teachers' ability to deliver the goods, notably in terms of national test results. In this essay I challenge the view that a teacher's role and value should be defined solely with respect to measurable outcomes, and argue that the…