Iheoma Iruka is founding director of the Equity Research Action Coalition at Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and research professor of public policy at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her work focuses on supporting the optimal development of children from low-wealth and marginalized communities and ensuring excellence…

This essay provides an overview of the papers contained in this issue of the "Peabody Journal of Education." In it, the author notes for policymakers especially issues and concerns that emerge from the use of formative assessments geared towards education improvement. While the intent of such assessments is to lead to improved overall…

The Common Core State Standards, released in 2010, were rapidly adopted by more than 40 states. Champions maintained that these rigorous standards would transform American education, but the initiative went on to encounter a bumpy path. A decade on, what are we to make of this ambitious effort? What kind of impact, if any, has it had on the…

Given that I share, mostly, Eugene Matusov's passionate concerns, picking on his vocabulary might appear pedantic. However, the issues involved in labeling political movements and, even more, political practices, can be fundamental and address the very grounds on which social analysis must stand. Briefly, I am concerned with the label…

This paper presents the testimony of Kevin Huffman, Tennessee Commissioner of Education, before the House Committee on Education and Labor. He talks about the work done by the Tennessee Department of Education to improve education for the nearly 950,000 public school students in Tennessee. He starts by providing some context about his and his…

With the recent emphasis on evaluating teachers' effectiveness by the performance of their students, it should be no surprise that this subject has reached the physical education (PE) sector. This commentary examines 3 articles by Rink (2013), McKenzie and Lounsbery (2013), and Ward (2013), who each take a different perspective on measuring…

Computerized testing, including the widely used MAP test, has infiltrated the public schools in Milwaukee and across the nation, bringing with it a frightening future for public education. High-stakes standardized tests can be scored almost immediately via the internet, and testing companies can now easily link districts to their online data…

In this response to Spaulding et al.'s examination of state education agency (SEA) guidance on severity ratings, these authors contend that Spaulding et al. provided an incomplete view of current practices in public schools. These authors state that, ultimately, school speech-language pathologists (SLPs) must follow all state regulations and local…

Since the run-up to the 2008 election, the Democratic Party has been home to two prominent and very different reform wings. One, spearheaded by the group Democrats for Education Reform and notable school-district chiefs like New York's Joel Klein and Washington, D.C.'s Michelle Rhee, is the Education Equality Project (EEP). The other, A Broader,…

This paper is about the issue of the performance of inspection. Based on research conducted in an English secondary school in the years following its time under Special Measures, I discuss the idea that during an inspection the school becomes focussed around performing for inspection. I discuss performance theory here as well as notions of…

Since 2001 there has been a renewed government focus on skills development and its relationship with combating unemployment in Ghana. Technical and vocational education and training (hereinafter; TVET), delivered through public and private schools, vocational training institutes and informal apprenticeship training, continues to be seen as an…

On virtually all tests these days, there is a score that determines whether a student passes or fails, is proficient or not, or is being educated or left behind. This is the cut score. This author states that, while it might seem cynical, the fairest way to set the cutoff score is to decide in advance how many students a person wants to fail. This…

Analysis of Utah's four major pieces of legislation related to educator evaluation illustrates some of the evaluation complications that can occur when the legislation lacks clarity, simplicity, and compatibility with regard to purposes of evaluation. (MLF)

This paper examines whether the Title I/Chapter 1 tradition of leading the way in educational evaluation will continue or whether Chapter 1 will change its role by delegating decision-making authority over evaluation methodology to state and local school systems. Whatever direction Chapter 1 takes, states, school systems, and schools must be held…

Examples of the difficulties that public school program evaluators can have in explaning perplexing results are provided. Arguments abound over the best way to report a finding that has multiple interpretations or presentation options, and the enigma of realizing that one way to report a finding is not the only way, or even necessarily the best…