With a focus on the American context, the study investigates a teacher accountability reform as an expanding assemblage of neoliberal governance by providing an account of physical education teachers who were experiencing an accountability reform that required them to document student learning growth for teacher evaluation. Through stratified…

North Carolina public charter schools are schools of choice authorized by the State Board of Education. North Carolina has nearly 200 charter schools, which are evaluated for effectiveness annually by a tool called the Performance Framework. However, to date, the evidence collected through the Performance Framework has not been offered to scholars…

The Public School Forum of North Carolina is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization focused on improving educational outcomes for all North Carolina children. As they do each year, they have released a list of the "Top 10 Education Issues" they believe will be the top issues for the year, as well as issues they believe should be on the…

Leading Charlotte foundations formed a funding collaborative to support a five-year district turnaround initiative to dramatically improve educational outcomes for students in the West Charlotte High School corridor, one of the city's lowest-performing feeder zones. The "Project L.I.F.T." initiative involves four areas of education…

The East Durham Children's Initiative (EDCI), a partnership among local government, nonprofit, faith, and school organizations, is focusing on the community's most promising resource--its children--in order to restore the city to the thriving African-American middle-class community it was throughout much of the mid-20th century. Since 2008, EDCI…

Every state can create secure, robust linkages between early childhood and K-12 data systems, and effectively use the information from these linkages to implement initiatives to support programs and children, answer key policy questions, and be transparent about how the state's early childhood investments prepare students for success in school and…

In 2008, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) produced a series of papers documenting promising practices identified throughout the field of K-12 online learning. Since then, we have witnessed a tremendous acceleration of transformative policy and practice driving personalized learning in the K-12 education space. State,…

The Early Learning Challenge (ELC) program awarded more than $1 billion in four-year grants to 20 States to implement comprehensive and cohesive high-quality early learning systems that support young children with high needs and their families. A key lever in making these improvements was the enhancement of States' Quality Rating and Improvement…

While traditional public school and charter school systems continue to undergo dramatic reforms in response to the educational crisis, charter schools are praised as possessing the distinguishing characteristic of maintaining autonomy in exchange for increased accountability (Buckley & Schneider, 2009). The expectations for charter schools are…

Teacher effort, a critical component of education production, has been largely ignored in the literature due to measurement difficulties. Using a principal-agent model, North Carolina public school data, and the state's unique accountability system that rewards teachers for school-level academic growth, we show that we can distill effort from…

The purpose of this synthesis of the literature on charter school effectiveness is to develop a research agenda on the topic and to propose action that will lead to improved performance of charter schools. To accomplish these goals, background information is first provided including: a definition of charter schools; statistics on charter schools;…

Locally controlled public schools are one of the cornerstones of our nation's democracy, yet many schools are not preparing students for success. Far too many students are not graduating, and many of those who do graduate are woefully unprepared for college or a meaningful career. Successfully initiating and sustaining meaningful improvements in…

Since 1946, four major efforts to improve educational outcomes through shifts in governance have occurred in North Carolina. The 1989 reforms were characterized by an increase in rhetoric about local control and initiatives, teacher involvement, and school-based management. This paper surveys the last 50 years of educational reform policy in North…

From the mission, several principles were developed to guide the School-Based Management and Accountability Program (the ABCs). (1) The ABCs sets standards for student performance and growth in the basics that are the foundation for further learning and achievement; (2) The accountability system in the ABCs plan is designed to result in improved…

Traces the efforts in North Carolina to divide the fiscal burden of public education between the state and local governments while ensuring fairness, equity, and quality in education. Describes current issues of financial responsibility, fairness, and education reform. (108 references) (MLF)