This essay examines the importance of student success in higher education, particularly for underserved and disadvantaged student populations. This essay provides a review of contemporary trends in national postsecondary completion and strategies to enhance student success outcomes which will provide thriving economies and a talented workforce.…

Discourse around Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education in the United States has long focused on improving the persistence and academic achievement of students. On the surface, such goals are reasonable and well-intentioned. However, the near-exclusive focus on those two outcomes as shorthand for "success"…

Cell phones, ubiquitous in many high schools, are often credited with helping students connect with people and learn new concept. However, literature indicates that problematic cell phone and social media usage are negatively associated with student academic performance and mental well-being. As cell phone technologies continue to evolve, they…

The growing recognition of "how much" principals matter for student learning and "how" they make a difference has fueled the need to ensure that effective principals are leading every school. One way to achieve this is through principal evaluation, which has experienced significant changes in the last decade. We conducted a…

This paper describes progress, challenges and opportunities of using policy to advance educational equity and excellence at scale in the United States. It begins with a look-back that examines two key elements of the standards-based education (SBE) era: First, it traces policy shifts and implementation challenges of the SBE era. Second, it…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to demonstrate in the context of quality assurance (QA), how stakeholders define quality education and its connections to maximize value for the stakeholder using a grounded theory approach. Design/methodology/approach: A four-stage research design using grounded theory methodology was used to develop and…

The focus on improving children's readiness for kindergarten has intensified globally. While most studies examine this issue prior to children entering kindergarten, little is known about how education stakeholders make sense of readiness once children enter kindergarten. This article addresses this gap by examining how a range of stakeholders…

The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown on July 1, 2013, represents the first comprehensive change in California's education funding system in 40 years. The LCFF eliminates nearly all categorical funding streams, shifts control of most education dollars from the state to local school districts, and…

The nature of federal and state policies regarding accountability testing narrows the taught curriculum to content tested, thereby changing what is officially valued as student learning. The over-emphasis on standardized test scores has narrowed the curriculum to content that is tested (Amrein&Berliner, 2002; Baker, 2008; Herman, 2008;…

We apply a utilization-focused evaluation [UFE] approach to an evaluation of Virginia's latest comprehensive accountability policy--the Standards of Accreditation (SOA). Our study focuses on the implementation experiences of district and high school level administrators in four urban districts. This study is significant in two important ways.…

The report contains real-world, proven school climate strategies to guide policymakers in building a comprehensive and coherent state-wide approach for improving school climate. It features 12 recommendations linked to existing state policy examples policymakers can use to build a comprehensive, coherent state-wide approach for improving school…

Policies on social promotion and retention, although formulated to regulate academic success and failure in the field of K-12 education, have become burdensome and are now considered damaging to the public education system. The various stakeholders in education, including students, teachers, education policy makers, parents, and employers are all…

Numerous countries are introducing National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs), or preparing to introduce them, despite the limited empirical evidence for their effectiveness. This paper takes advantage of recent additions to the evidence base on NQFs in order to assess their impacts, focusing on comprehensive frameworks. It also presents analytical…

In this paper we examine the public charter school movement in the Province of Alberta, Canada over the past 20 years to determine how charter school policy and regulations have limited and controlled the impact of charter schools on public education. Specifically we focus on the extent to which charter schools in Alberta fulfilled the aims and…

This paper examines student learning time as a key educational resource. It presents an overview of how different OECD countries allocate instruction time. It also develops a model to understand the effective use of allocated instruction time and examines how different OECD countries compare on this. The paper confirms the value of sufficient…