Co-published with “While assessment may feel to constituents like an activity of accountability simply for accreditors, it is most appropriate to approach assessment as an activity of accountability for students. Assessment results that improve institutional effectiveness, heighten student learning, and better align resources serve to make institutions stronger for the benefit of their students, and those results also serve the institution or program well during the holistic evaluation required through accreditation.” – from the foreword by Heather Perfetti, President of the Middle States Commission on Higher EducationColleges and universities struggle to understand precisely what is being asked for by accreditors, and this book answers that question by sharing examples of success reported by schools specifically recommended by accreditors. This compendium gathers examples of assessment practice in twenty-four higher education institutions: twenty-three in the U.S. and one in Australia. All institutions represented in this book were suggested by their accreditor as having an effective assessment approach in one or more of the following assessment focused areas: assessment in the disciplines, co-curricular, course/program/institutional assessment, equity and inclusion, general education, online learning, program review, scholarship of teaching and learning, student learning, or technology. These examples recommended by accrediting agencies makes this a unique contribution to the assessment literature.The book is organized in four parts. Part One is focused on student learning and assessment and includes ten chapters. The primary focus for Part Two is student learning assessment from a disciplinary perspective and includes four chapters. Part Three has a faculty engagement and assessment focus, and Part Four includes four chapters on institutional effectiveness and assessment, with a focus on strategic planning.This book is a publication of the Association for the Assessment of Learning in Higher Education (AALHE), an organization of practitioners interested in using effective assessment practice to document and improve student learning.

It's not just about what students know. What can they do with their knowledge? Author Susan M. Brookhart shares her expertise, bringing together practical, research-based information to deepen educators' understanding of what performance assessment is, what purposes it serves, and how to use performance tasks and rubrics to support formative and summative assessment.

Professional Development Schools are complex and comprehensive school university partnerships focusing on professional development of new teachers and veteran teachers while providing high quality education to P-12 students. The chapters of this book contain the stories of 8 highly successful and nationally recognized professional development schools. Each story provides the reader with practical ideas, procedures and policies that can be implemented by the reader to begin new partnerships or help improve and sustain existing partnerships. Each chapter discusses the rich clinical preparation combined with progressive experiences in PDSs that have made the partnership successful. The diverse authors from several different states describe their efforts to forge PDS partnerships to develop and deliver high quality teacher preparations, practical experiences for teacher candidates, and simultaneously provide professional development for experienced practitioners. The book will be a valuable resource to school and university faculty and administrators as they transition to a partnering model of clinical preparation for teacher candidates: it will help stakeholders decide if their schools and institutions are ready to commit to a partnership, and highlight the benefits they stand to gain. The book also realistically addresses challenges in a way the reader can prepare for to reduce obstacles in establishing and sustaining PDSs.

Become an irresistible school Our rapidly evolving world is dramatically impacting how we view schools. Fortunately, we have the knowledge to not only survive, but thrive during rapid change. Other organizations have faced these evolutionary disruptions for centuries. Thrive: How Schools Will Win the Education Revolution translates this knowledge for educators. Written by Grant Lichtman, a thought leader on the transformation of education, this book will help administrators understand: • The most important concepts in creating long-term success: value, strategy, and innovation • The Five Big Tools of strategic change, to build both a comfort and capacity for change • The reality of competing in an evolving marketplace Families are choosing from a growing menu of learning options. Your school needs a value proposition that shouts, "We are your best choice!" As an educator, you have an important role to play in winning the education revolution and making your school irresistible to your community.

Exemplars show what rubrics tell about assessment criteria. When exemplars complement rubrics, a proven tool for describing expectations, students are able to appreciate writing standards in a more concrete way.--back cover.

The Journal of Evidence-Based Practices for Schools is a leader in publishing research-to-practice articles for educators and school psychologists. The mission of this journal is to positively influence the daily practice of school-based professionals through studies demonstrating successful research-based practices in educational settings. As a result, the editors are committed to publishing articles with an eye toward improving student performance and outcomes by advancing psychological and educational practices in the schools. They seek articles using non-technical language that (1) outline an evidence-based practice, (2) describe the literature supporting the effectiveness and theoretical underpinnings of the practice, (3) describe the findings of a study in which the practice was implemented in an educational setting, and (4) provide readers with information they need to implement the practice in their own schools in a section entitled Implementation Guidelines. The Journal of Evidence-Based Practices for Schools differs from other scholarly journals in that it features articles that demonstrate empirically-based procedures for readers to apply the practice in their setting.

Looking at the potential for research-use by educators to improve schools for all young people, An Ecosystem for Research-Engaged Schools presents a range of ground-breaking research and fascinating case studies. It carefully explores the elements and dimensions of research-engaged schools using an ecosystems perspective to study the layers and interconnections that occur amongst the people and institutions that exist within the ecosystem. Allowing the reader to consider how to ensure independent elements of the ecosystem are maintained to ensure an effective balance, this book brings together contributions from international experts working in a variety of fields such as school leadership, professional development and accountability. Key issues facing the research-use ecosystem both theoretically and empirically are covered, with examples of innovative practice, new theories and value systems. The book also provides an insight into the exciting possibility of such a system of learning and innovation in our schools where structures, cultures, practices and policies align to promote research-informed school improvement. With chapters bringing together issues from different aspects of the system, this book: expands the analysis of evidence and research-informed practice, considering the wider environment within which it is undertaken shows the interplay and tensions between aspects of the ecosystem and illustrates how different aspects of the ecosystem affect evidence use reconciles all aspects of the ecosystem within an overarching framework which attempts to explain the complex totality of the ecosystem. Designed to both challenge and inspire, An Ecosystem for Research-Engaged Schools truly bridges the gap between theory and practice. It will be an invaluable asset to those currently working in the area, allowing them to think more deeply about their work and the theoretical mechanisms that underpin it. Policy makers, practitioners and teachers will also find this book a fascinating read.

First Published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Nearly the whole of America’s partisan politics centers on a single question: Can markets solve our social problems? And for years this question has played out ferociously in the debates about how we should educate our children. From the growth of vouchers and charter schools to the implementation of No Child Left Behind, policy makers have increasingly turned to market-based models to help improve our schools, believing that private institutions—because they are competitively driven—are better than public ones. With The Public School Advantage, Christopher A. and Sarah Theule Lubienski offer powerful evidence to undercut this belief, showing that public schools in fact outperform private ones. For decades research showing that students at private schools perform better than students at public ones has been used to promote the benefits of the private sector in education, including vouchers and charter schools—but much of these data are now nearly half a century old. Drawing on two recent, large-scale, and nationally representative databases, the Lubienskis show that any benefit seen in private school performance now is more than explained by demographics. Private schools have higher scores not because they are better institutions but because their students largely come from more privileged backgrounds that offer greater educational support. After correcting for demographics, the Lubienskis go on to show that gains in student achievement at public schools are at least as great and often greater than those at private ones. Even more surprising, they show that the very mechanism that market-based reformers champion—autonomy—may be the crucial factor that prevents private schools from performing better. Alternatively, those practices that these reformers castigate, such as teacher certification and professional reforms of curriculum and instruction, turn out to have a significant effect on school improvement. Despite our politics, we all agree on the fundamental fact: education deserves our utmost care. The Public School Advantage offers exactly that. By examining schools within the diversity of populations in which they actually operate, it provides not ideologies but facts. And the facts say it clearly: education is better off when provided for the public by the public.