Furlong and Oancea's influential framework for assessing the products of applied and practice-based educational inquiry raises some important issues about the criteria by which research should be judged. They begin by outlining the current significance of the issue, and some of the uncertainties surrounding the definition of applied and…

This excerpt from the opening plenary asks evaluators to consider two questions regarding learning and evaluation: (a) How do evaluators know if, how, when, and what people are learning during an evaluation? and (b) In what ways can evaluation be a learning experience? To answer the first question, evaluators can apply the commonplaces of…

As online learning continues to grow each year, so do the number of new media and Web 2.0 technologies faculty have at their disposal, yet the majority of online courses remain heavily text-based. Online learning often mirrors the traditional classroom, with a focus on read and write (and at times discuss)--sometimes with good reason. One of the…

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,…

President Obama has embraced an audacious ambition--to renew America's status as the world leader in college attainment. That goal is daunting, and it leads many people to conclude that they should focus federal investments on four-year colleges. If individuals want to realize the president's goal, that would be a terrible mistake. Located in…

In this article the author seeks to look at the policy on Academies from a broader perspective, briefly touching on issues of democracy, autonomy, governance and accountability and arguing that the policy must be considered holistically. Individuals should focus not on an Academy or Academies in isolation but on their relationship with the rest of…

Educational leaders in the United States are faced with a society seeking instantaneous perfection, immediate and perfect solutions. In education, this leads to a demand for push-button administration and an abandonment of trust in educators' judgment. As exemplified by the No Child Left Behind Act (2002), the search for quick fixes results in…

Schools struggle to accurately assess nonnative speakers of English using accountability systems that somehow do not capture the complexity of the issues at hand. This article discusses topics surrounding the assessment of English language learners and how these issues have been oversimplified by such processes as the No Child Left Behind…

Despite efforts over the past several decades to improve the delivery of transition services for youth with disabilities, outcomes continue to be unacceptably dismal for most youth, including high rates of unemployment, residential independence, and financial dependence, concurrent with low rates of enrollment in college or other postsecondary…

From the time of the Founding Fathers to the late 20th century, U.S. citizens have expected their schools to teach math and reading--and also social studies, history, science, the arts and music, character development, citizenship education, work skills, and emotional and physical health and fitness. Yet because No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and its…

Education in the United States has reached yet another critical milestone on the way toward standardization. On June 1, 2009, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) announced that 46 states, the District of Columbia, and two U.S. territories agreed to join an…

Believing that accountability could be a vehicle for change, the California Department of Education (CDE) requires all high school students to pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) in order to graduate. In doing so, California joins many others states in mandating a high school exit exam as a current or future requirement for…

In this chapter, the author contemplates the future of accreditation in the changing landscape of higher education in the United States. He presents a set of proposals for how accreditation can regain the confidence of college leaders and public policymakers. He begins with the assumption that changes in accreditation--some significant in their…

Key legislative objectives for the US Federal educational policy over the past several decades relied heavily on quasi-market strategies (such as school rating, school closure, the contracting out of schools) as central levers in "reforming" public schools. Using financial data on 11 national for-profit firms contracting with schools and…

In the increasingly research and innovation-driven landscape of higher education, the Federal Government's Teaching and Learning Fund is supposed to redress the balance. Leesa Wheelehan is unconvinced. She argues the fund simply encourages game-playing between institutions in manipulating their teaching outcomes, and rewards good teaching on…