Historically, U.S. school districts have led schooling, while state education agencies (SEAs) have held a largely regulatory role in school improvement. Yet, a recent reform strategy, the "state takeover," allows an SEA to assume direct governance of a low-performing district -- potentially creating a much more active role for state…

The goal of this paper is to show how one political science department at a small midwestern university (Millikin University, Decatur, Illinois) used good assessment practices identified by the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE) and others to effect improvement. The paper argues that these principles can be followed and produce…

This paper examined state and community programs for preschool-aged children in Illinois during a 1-year period in order to identify, describe, and publicize effective practices in early childhood education. Exemplars, rather than content-specific standards, were used for selection criteria. A qualitative, connoisseurship model of evaluation was…