Universities might aspire to teaching excellence, but do they enable academic teachers to make good teaching decisions? Using a critical realist perspective, a qualitative interview study in England and Australia explored academics' experiences of teaching decisions and their responses to strategic, institutional and departmental teaching policy…

The objective of this audit was to determine the extent to which the U.S. Department of Education (Department) had processes for ensuring that Federal Student Aid's (FSA) fiscal year (FY) 2020-2024 strategic goals, objectives, and related performance indicators were effective. The audit covered FSA's strategic planning and related activities from…

This report presents the findings of an analysis of states' FFY 2018 State Systemic Improvement Plans (SSIPs), submitted to the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in April 2020. It specifically addresses how assessments were included in states' State-Identified Measurable Results (SIMRs). For states with…

School improvement is an iterative process through which districts and schools develop their capacity, implement and refine new policies and practices, and respond to new developments and needs over time. School improvement policy can also be considered an iterative process, with policy implementors learning from previous rounds of a policy.…

This mixed-method study examines Michigan's Partnership policy for school turnaround, which positions the district and superintendents as key policy implementation actors. We first interviewed 21 of 35 Partnership superintendents/leaders across Michigan and surveyed teachers to understand the initial response to the turnaround policy and the…

Educational outcomes for Black & brown students are the result of well-functioning school systems overwrought with top-down bureaucracy that stifle school-based leaders from generating school-based solutions. The dominant explanation is the growing power and influence of politically-driven school board members cut off from local, national, and…

Experiential education, the process of providing students with applied learning opportunities within and outside the classroom, is rife with organizational complexity. This article examines Ontario's Strategic Mandate Agreements using qualitative content analysis to see how conceptions and communications of experiential learning have changed over…

Purpose: To assess the extent to which privatised extension service, which is premised to be demand-driven, delivers downward accountability to smallholder farmers who are both owners and users of agricultural services. Design/methodology/approach: The research collected data through focus group discussions with smallholder tea farmers and key…

What happens when a state's literacy reform policy allows for ownership and individualized diversification of the policy's instructional mandates at the level of district and school? How do systems and individuals experience the change in reform and respond to both the power and the pressures of having to design and implement their own literacy…

Libraries at academic institutions have been involved in research data management services (RDMS) for more than ten years. Institutions have adapted their service models in response to funder, journal, and federal mandates that have consequently increased RDMS demand. However, institutions that hope to start or grow their services may have…

Early intervention (EI) home visitation programs are central to delivering services that support infants and toddlers displaying developmental delays or disabilities and their families. Entities that oversee such programs continually seek to strengthen the quality of program practices. The "Getting Ready" approach is a professional…

This study reviewed perceived changes to planning and management of transitions to adulthood for young people with special educational needs and disabilities in three local authorities in England, following implementation of the Children and Families Act (2014). Wenger's 'community of practice' theoretical framework was used to examine how groups…

Purpose: This study provides a country-specific and sector-wide study of campus sustainability. Campus sustainability is a key consideration for the higher education (HEI) sector, and campus sustainability officers and managers manage its reporting and planning. Global and country-specific studies to date have focussed on individual organisation…

The main aim of the present study was to analyze the causes, outcomes, and strategies of performance-based budgeting in the Iranian higher education system. To this end, a qualitative approach based on the grounded theory was used. In order to collect reliable data, in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with two groups of experts who…

Strategic plans are valuable tools for colleges seeking to cast vision and provide focused guidance for leadership and faculty, but it is not clear how these plans address student success. This study analyzed plans from 55 of the 58 community colleges in North Carolina. First, we analyzed the plans using a 10-step strategic planning framework to…