The Vanderbilt Assessment for Leadership in Education (VAL-ED) is a 360-degree learning-centered behaviors principal evaluation tool that includes ratings from the principal, supervisors, and teachers. The current study assesses the test-retest reliability of the VAL-ED for a sample of seven school districts as part of multiple validity and…

Against the backdrop of PISA 2015 results, the aim of this study is to review basic structures of German education system by exploring curriculum development process, key features of each educational level and teacher education in order to grasp how Germany has amended her poor performance after PISA 2000 and persistently improved the quality of…

Critical Race Theory contends that institutions codify and sustain racial inequalities even absent explicitly racist motives or actions. College ranking systems perpetuate such institutional racism by socially constructing minority-serving institutions (MSIs) as less valuable and prestigious. By assigning greater worth to criteria favoring more…

This study explored the use of Exit Cards, which are formative evaluations of student knowledge and instruction undertaken at every class meeting. Its results are based on Exit Card data from two undergraduate research methods courses. Thematic analysis indicated that students used Exit Cards to communicate (1) what they learned, (2) challenges…

Grade inflation threatens the integrity of college grades as indicators of academic achievement. In this study, we contribute to the literature on grade inflation by providing the first estimate of the size of grade increases at the student level between the mid-1990s and mid-2000s. By controlling for student characteristics and course-taking…

In Michigan, schools and educators are held accountable for performance more than ever before. Charter school authorizers--the entities responsible for opening and overseeing new and existing charter schools--face almost no accountability for their performance. In Michigan's current charter landscape, the enormous responsibility of authorizing has…

Strong school accountability systems can be a powerful tool for sending a clear message that achievement of all groups of students matters and that to be considered good, a school must serve all groups of students well. But in recent years, many states put in place accountability systems that mask disparities in opportunity and achievement rather…

In this 12th edition of its flagship annual survey of college general education curricula, "What Will They Learn?," American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) shines a light on the wide disparity in academic standards at institutions of higher learning across the country. "What Will They Learn?" reviews the core curricula…

A broad range of factors go into weighing how well the nation's schools are living up to their responsibility to ensure that students are on track academically and prepared to take their place in a complex, ever-changing society. This third and final installment of "Quality Counts 2018" digs deeply into test scores, high school…

Learning in higher education today is measured overwhelmingly on the basis of "correctness," that is, whether students sufficiently approached the preset "expert" answer to a test question. We posit that although conceptual correctness is at the core of good learning, there is much information instructors miss out on by relying…

Our nation's colleges and universities frequently adapt their approach to education in response to the reality of social, economic and environmental challenges. Today the reality is that we are increasingly interconnected on a global scale. This new era of globalization impacts every facet of society, and it offers both an exciting blend of…

A quality rating and improvement system (QRIS) is a method used by states and local jurisdictions to assess the level of quality of child care and early education programs, improve quality, and convey quality ratings to parents and other consumers. A typical QRIS incorporates the following components: quality standards for participating providers;…

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the application of quality management systems (QMS) based on international standards of quality in education (ISO 9001:2008) and ascertain the influence of this quality model on primary and secondary schools in Spain. Design/methodology/approach: The study was conducted in 26 publicly funded,…

One of the overarching goals of international large-scale assessments (ILSA) is to inform public discourse about the quality of education in different countries. To fulfil this function, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), for example, raises awareness of the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)…

Students with disabilities have been included in state accountability systems for more than a decade; however, only in the past few years have alternate assessments of alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS) become stable enough to allow examination of these students' achievement growth. Using data from Oregon's AA-AAS in Reading during the…