Contemporary education reform movements in the United States have emphasized accountability for student performance. Policy actors serving within the executive branch have arguably gained power in part to provide this accountability function. The present study, in which Ohio and Pennsylvania serve as state case contexts, examines the changing…

Communicators create clear engagement strategies and compelling messages, relentlessly reaching out using the latest tools, tactics and techniques. But many communicators are not sure whether those efforts are penetrating or engaging key audiences, particularly with the fire hose of information flooding through emails and mainstream and social…

To meet the new and more rigorous college- and career-ready standards for student learning, all of today's students must have access to effective teaching--every day and in every classroom. As teachers and their school leaders are increasingly held accountable for implementing consistently effective teaching, calls for holding the programs that…

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is working to respond to increased interest in the use of growth models for school accountability. Growth models are based on tracking change in individual student achievement scores over multiple years. While growth models have been used for decades in academic research and program evaluation, a…

Shares observations about factors critical in the outcomes of the review of Ohio's state-supported doctoral programs in English. Details some of the responsibilities and challenges that both the departments and review panel faced in developing extensive self-studies. Argues that departments should address mismatches or anomalies in their programs.…

Virtually every academic department in an institute of higher education requires Web presence as a critical component of its information technology strategy. The problem of how to leverage the World Wide Web and build effective and useful departmental Web sites seems to have long been solved. Yet browsing academic Web sites from around the world…

A study sought to determine the extent to which local accountability systems exist in vocational education and to describe the nature of the underlying relationships between such programs and their constituents. Data were collected through interviews from two local vocational education programs in each of five states (California, Florida,…

In 1983, the Ohio State Board of Education responded to the public's expectations for schools by adopting minimum standards requiring competency-based education in mathematics on a 5-year cycle, of each school district's competency-based education program; and to publish an annual report on competency-based education in Ohio. This document is the…