Nearly 30 states have adopted or are transitioning to performance-based funding programs for community colleges that allocate funding based on institutional performance according to defined metrics. While embraced by state lawmakers and promoted by outside advocacy groups as a method to improve student outcomes, enhance accountability and ensure…

We interviewed eight principals from Bermuda and Florida about how they identify and manage their most pressing challenges. Their challenges are composed of both adaptive and technical work, requiring leaders to learn to diagnose and manage them. Challenges focused on change and were traced to accountability contexts, yet accountability was not…

Policymakers are revolutionizing teacher evaluation by attaching greater stakes to student test scores and observation-based teacher effectiveness measures, but relatively little is known about why they often differ so much. Quantitative analysis of thirty schools suggests that teacher value-added measures and informal principal evaluations are…

Indicator 14 is a federal accountability initiative that attempts to generate data on the outcomes of students with disabilities 1 year after leaving high school. Currently, there are only two areas, postsecondary education/training and employment, mandated for examination. Ultimately, the data are used to develop specific goals for 6-year State…

Florida's Race to the Top (RTTT) competition invited university-district partnerships to compete for funds aimed at improving principal preparation programs. In this article, we report findings from a qualitative case study focused on one program partnership funded by RTTT. Drawing upon interviews with faculty and relevant documents, we conducted…

Purpose: This article highlights the complexity of accountability issues associated with one charter school from the charter application process, operation, and functioning of the external mechanism and the internal mechanism to hold the charter school accountable, closure of the school, and consequences of the charter school's closure on its…

This investigation examined the role of the principal in school change during the current era of high-stakes accountability. Qualitative methods were used to conduct a case study of one principal who had a record of success in leading school change efforts and developing a model inclusive program in his school. The results of the case study…

A phenomenological case study by Counsell (2007) explored and investigated the phenomenon of what happened as Florida's A+ Plan intersected with the life histories of one beginning African American female third grade teacher and one veteran White female third grade teacher at demographically different school communities in one Florida school…

Researchers from MDRC and Johns Hopkins University partnered with Florida's Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) in 2009 to launch an independent evaluation of the district's initiative to implement Ninth Grade Academies (NGAs) in every district high school. An NGA is a self-contained learning community for ninth-graders that operates as a school…

Background/Context: Performance funding finances public higher education institutions based on outcomes such as retention, course and degree completion, and job placement rather than inputs such as enrollments. One of the mysteries of state performance funding for higher education is that despite great interest in it for over 30 years, only half…

In December 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaced No Child Left Behind (NCLB), as the nation's major law governing public schools. ESSA retains the requirement that states test all students in reading and math in grades three through eight and once in high school, as well as the requirement that…

There is some evidence to indicate that chronically low-performing schools, whether improving student performance or not, often report pursuing substantially similar policies, programs, and practices. However, while chronically low-performing schools may pursue similar school improvement strategies, there is some evidence that the level and…

All of the 15 states in this study have recently been involved in school accountability system reform. Since 2011, the states have taken advantage of a federal program to give them flexibility around certain accountability requirements of the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 (NCLB), the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and…

Current federal legislation holds schools accountable for ensuring that all students, including those with disabilities, make adequate yearly progress on academic achievement measures, while also including students with disabilities in general education settings whenever possible. Schools are thus expected to be both excellent and equitable in…

This case study of a high-achieving, high-poverty school describes the school's leadership, culture, and programs that contributed to its success. Data were collected from two surveys (the School Culture Survey and the Vanderbilt Assessment of Leadership in Education), observations at the school site, and interviews with school personnel. The…