Regardless of what one thinks of No Child Left Behind (NCLB), the current national education legislation has demonstrated the power and potential of learning standards linked with systems of accountability to influence classroom experiences. Unfortunately, the changes promoted by the legislation have tied the professional hands and suppressed the…

This article presents an interview with Eric Barela, a K-12 school district internal evaluator who conducted the Title I Best Practices study for the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Research and Planning Division (formerly known as the Program Evaluation and Research Branch). In this interview, the author focuses not only on the…

Argues that all stakeholders in education should be consulted regarding the purpose, goals, accomplishments, and behaviors to be influenced by education, and that specific content should be accomplishment-based. Five figures illustrate: (1) the behavior/accomplishment relationship, (2) synthesis of desired K-12 accomplishments, (3) examples of…