Today's teachers are unprepared to meet increasingly complex assessment challenges. The poor state of assessment literacy arises from naive assumptions about standardized testing and student motivation, fear of being held accountable for student achievement, parents' nostalgic views of testing, and confusion over achievement expectations for high…

Comprising complex technologies from different academic areas, Tennessee's Value-Added Assessment System measures effects of the system, school, and teacher on rate of student progress. Research findings reveal neutral racial-composition effects for intermediate grades, deleterious effects for students changing buildings, lower yearly academic…

An AASA report says 80 percent of the nation's superintendents are evaluated annually and 12 percent more often than that. However, comprehensive assessments are rare. Most are done in closed session and are rather perfunctory. Reluctant to use student outcomes, boards are trying more detailed approaches. (MLH)

The effective-schools movement as currently promoted by profit-oriented consultants has been contaminated by five fallacies: all children have equal learning opportunities; principals (not teachers) are instructional leaders; standards should be set by exceptions; academic standards should be uniform; and teachers should work smarter, not harder.…

A shortage of capital and appropriate education facilities prompted the Edmonton (Alberta) Public Schools to explore creative solutions such as leasing retrofitted facilities to house new academic programs. Landlords generally like school districts, considering them reliable, long-term tenants for hard-to-rent larger buildings. (MLH)

Congress recently approved a Communications Decency Act (part of the sweeping Telecommunications Act of 1996) that criminalizes the act of making pornography available to minors on the Internet. School districts can avoid the darker corners of online access and reassure parents by adopting acceptable use policies, board of education policies, or…

Educational media offer no unique benefits. Once research considers lesson content, instructional strategies, and overall resource allocation, student outcome differences will disappear. The multimedia "panacea" is no equalizer, as accessibility problems abound. Schools should invest in cheaper, less fashionable instructional strategies (field…

Since teachers know that students and parents will not rate them as kindly as fellow educators, most attempts to add these voices have been resisted. Although some districts have managed to overcome teacher skepticism and hostility, only 1 percent of U.S. school districts use 360-degree evaluation regularly. (MLH)

A Colorado school district approved a mill levy that tied additional future funding to improved student performance on the Colorado Student Assessment Program. In a single year the district met more than half of their 3-year goal and credits success to a focused, data-driven approach, a bipartisan citizens committee, a strategic plan, a plan for…

Provides advice to superintendents considering a position with another school district; includes suggestions from search consultants and other superintendents. (PKP)

Describes differences between problems and predicaments. Asserts that top leaders manage predicaments. Describes several paradoxes faced by educational leaders and the predicaments underlying their decision choices that usually result in coping with, rather than resolving the predicaments. Offers suggests for improving educational leaders'…

An upstate New York superintendent shares strategies to ensure good board-administrator relations. Superintendents should stress the primacy of serving students' interests and maintaining a respectful culture, set goals, treat board members equally, work for the majority, refrain from socializing, and evade noneducation-related disputes. (MLH)

The practice of identifying violence-prone students via checklists of personal characteristics and behaviors is accompanied by unanswered questions, recognized weaknesses, and serious implementation implications (for special services, suspensions and expulsions, and student rights). Stereotyping, discrimination, and wrongful identification of…

In 1994, Long Beach (California) Unified School District began requiring uniforms in all elementary and middle schools. Now, half of all urban school systems and many suburban schools have uniform policies. Research on uniforms' effectiveness is mixed. Tightened dress codes may be just as effective and less litigious. (MLH)

Test accommodations are changes in standardized test conditions to equalize opportunities between students with or without disabilities by achieving valid scores. The Individuals with Disabilities Act 1997 amendments require states and districts to include disabled students in accountability programs. Assumptions, practical implications,…