Perception of charter school principals on the provisions of charter school legislation

This study investigated the perceptions of charter school principals regarding ten provisions relevant to charter school legislation. In addition, this study determined if differences existed between the opinion of experts and the perception of charter school principals regarding the strengths and weaknesses related to ten provisions of charter school legislation. This study assessed the perceptions of practitioners, charter school principals, regarding charter school legislation. Experts within the charter school movement ranked and critiqued various provisions of charter school legislation from their frame of reference as policy analysts. However, charter school principals confront the ramifications of charter school legislation on a daily basis. The Center for Education Reform in their report, Charter School Laws Across the States 2000: Ranking Score Card and Legislative Profiles (2000), rated thirty-seven states\u27 charter school legislation according to ten provisions inherent to the concept of charter schools. Based upon the instrument used by The Center for Education Reform (2000), in which experts in policy analysis assessed charter school legislation, a questionnaire was developed to obtain similar assessments from practicing charter school principals. A questionnaire was distributed to all charter school principals within the states of Texas, California, Michigan and Pennsylvania. In addition, telephone interviews were conducted with two randomly selected principals from each state in order to confirm, enrich or query data derived from the questionnaire; Although experts within the charter school movement rated provisions of charter school legislation, this study assessed the perception of practitioners, charter school principals, regarding charter school legislation. This study suggested that a significant difference existed between the perception of charter school principals and the opinion of experts regarding provisions of charter school legislation. In addition, the results of this study suggested that the ideal charter school concept was not being implemented within the charter school movement based on the high level of bureaucratic oversight and the low level autonomy within the charter schools

Some thoughts about the value of an OECD international assessment framework for early childhood services in Aotearoa New Zealand

We were alerted to this warning from James Gee because it is from a chapter that reflects on assessment from a sociocultural-situated perspective. The New Zealand early childhood education curriculum, Te Whāriki, also takes this perspective and, in this short article, we argue that the use of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) standardized tests to evaluate our early childhood education sector, while it may be perfectly ‘scientific’, could be disastrous for Te Whāriki

Effective Organizational Practices for Middle and High School Grades

At the request of the Accountability Review Council, Research for Action identified effective organizational practices used by better performing schools serving substantial numbers of low income middle and high school students in the School District of Philadelphia. These practices are organized into three spheres: Conditions for Teaching, Student-Centered School Community, and Instructional Program. For each sphere, the report offers broad strategies and specific practices to enact the strategies. Nuanced school case studies show how the practices can work synergistically and coherently in schools to help students succeed