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To many, it seems obvious which schools are failing--schools whose students perform poorly on achievement tests. But since evaluating schools on achievement mixes the effects of school and nonschool influences, achievement-based evaluation likely underestimates the effectiveness of schools that serve disadvantaged populations. In this article, the authors discuss school-evaluation methods that more effectively separate school effects from nonschool effects. Specifically, the authors evaluate schools using 12-month (calendar-year) learning rates, 9-month (school-year) learning rates, and a provocative new measure, 'impact'--which is the difference between the school-year learning rate and the summer learning rate. Using data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study of 1998-99, the authors show that learning- or impact-based evaluation methods substantially change conclusions about which schools are failing. In particular, among schools with failing (i.e., bottom-quintile) achievement levels, less than half are failing with respect to learning or impact. In addition, schools that serve disadvantaged students are much more likely to have low achievement levels than they are to have low levels of learning or impact. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to market-based educational reform.

The article examines reactivity, the idea that people change their behavior in reaction to being observed, evaluated or measured. It indicates that these public measures change expectations and institutions.

The trends in school segregation for schools located in various distances from environmental hazards are examined by drawing upon the political economy and urban ecology of race perspectives. The trends in segregation among eighty-four public grade schools between the years of 1987 and 1999 in Hillsborough County School district are studied.

This article systematically reviews U.S. evidence from cross-sectional research on educational outcomes when schools must compete with each other. Competition typically is measured by using either the Herfindahl Index or the enrollment rate at an alternative school choice. Outcomes are academic test scores, graduation/attainment, expenditures/efficiency, teacher quality, students' post-school wages, and local housing prices. The sampling strategy identified more than 41 relevant empirical studies. A sizable majority report beneficial effects of competition, and many report statistically significant correlations. For each study, the effect size of an increase of competition by one standard deviation is reported. The positive gains from competition are modest in scope with respect to realistic changes in levels of competition. The review also notes several methodological challenges and recommends caution in reasoning from point estimates to public policy. KEYWORDS: competition, markets, school choice.

Research into the preferences of choice households in relation to the school they choose is given. The research shows that Whites, African, and Latinos transfer into charter schools where their groups make up 11 to 14 percentage points more of the student body than traditional public schools.

The New Zealand government has been demanding better information on the performance of the country's schools, but the subject is complicated by a lack of consensus about the definition and indicators of educational standards. The Education Review Office does not use specific indicators of effectiveness in evaluating schools' performance. It audits schools according to a set of standard procedures.

The 1996 Report of the New Zealand Tertiary Action Group led to the National Qualifications Framework, which recommended all educational qualifications be expressed in terms of learning outcomes. Objectives were defined as more general educational goals. Universities disagreed with the framework's attempt to standardize credits, arguing that the system of credits is the responsibility of the institution.

New Zealand's Education Review Office (ERO) criticized the performance of many schools in South Auckland. The performance may have been impacted by social, economic and political factors. ERO's ideological stance and methodology for reviewing schools put emphasis on outcomes and compliance rather than teacher professionalism. ERO's approach is similar to failed 19th-century models of external evaluation.

Studies done to learn about the distinctiveness of a school should be based the interaction and behavior of children and adults in school, the school's 'culture,' ethos and character. Those who describe schools typically compare one school to another or find what attributes they have in common, rather than sort out what makes one school unique. A new concept known as charter schools is becoming popular. These are publicly-financed and publicly-accountable schools with more functional freedom. A brief description of religious-based and magnet schools is given.

Elite private schools need to reasses their relationship with their African American students. These institutions should develop the skills of youths belonging to other ethnic backgrounds in the light of present social realities. Research has indicated that African Americans are the most alienated among all other racial groups seeking integration in these elite learning institutions.

In the history of American education, the pendulum has swung back and forth between concern with intellectual rigor and concern with student's social adjustment. If our country is to move [...]

Systemic reflection, not reflexive reaction, is fundamental to long-term improvement. Schools and districts must first ask the right questions. That there are so few examples of sustained, systemic change in [...]

Accountability systems in relation to No Child Left Behind Act makes the schools engage in a performance agreement with public agencies. This specifies the results to be produced and consequences of it to enhance performance of schools.

The inexcapable dimension of American education is presented. It is argued that success or failure on test affects the academic careers and life choices of students and increases the funding and operation of schools at the elementary, secondary, and collegiate levels, and it also reflects and influences what is taught to students and what they learn.

Few higher education institutions believe that they need to offer courses about sex, except to those who plan to specialize in the field. In the Netherlands, the residual nature of local autonomy of teachers and parents, whose views on sexual morality are accused of being too conservative, is a source of great concern for the sexual health experts and shows that for them the sexual reformation is far from complete.

There is a need for New Zealand schools to implement empirically based research strategies in order to improve achievement outcomes for students whose needs they can't meet. The gap between research and practice is highlighted, and the construct of acceptability of interventions is analyzed under three headings - the intervention, the teacher and the support needed to being about a change.

Three specific social spaces wherein Patti, an African American girl in the third grade is engaged with different and sometimes competing discourses is discussed. Schools should provide spaces in the regular meeting rooms of students and teachers, where hybrid identities can be created and re-created.

The issues of parental choice, a key aspect of the Picot report and Tomorrow's schools reforms are considered to examine the abolition of school zoning in leading to greater parental choice and the choice provided by enrolment schemes for parents and students. It is argued that a level of state intervention is required to ensure fair, transparent selection of students in oversubscribed schools in New Zealand's predominantly state school system.

Federal reports indicate that the 1998 National Assessment of Educational Progress inspired the National Education Goals Panel to commission a team of four researchers to study the workings of the Department of Defense system(DOD). The NAEP reports also showed that DOD system of schools were ranked among the fifty states.

A method used in Norwegian schools to enhance learning and development in groups of teachers is described. The peer based mentoring method, which was first introduced in the 1980's and has developed in different ways over the years is described.

A report outlining the literature review that seeks to examine the position of the Kura Kaupapa Maori, schools within the reformed New Zealand educational environment is described. Kura Kaupapa Maori, which is a distinctive and a unique feature of the New ZealandEs education system, is discussed.

Trying to create a more equitable school system, Kentucky has focused on mandated top-down systemic change for the past three years. Bottom-up change comes next. When the Kentucky Supreme Court [...]