Education and NGOs

Closing the Education Achievement Gaps for African American Males

Disrupting Early Childhood Education Research

Teacher Evaluation: The Charge and the Challenges

Under Pressure in Atlanta: School Accountability and Special Education Practices During the Cheating Scandal

This article draws from the lessons learned from the Atlanta Public Schools cheating scandal that occurred from 2009–2011, with particular attention paid to the unintended consequences of high-stakes accountability practices, especially for students with disabilities.

The Use of Test Accommodations as a Gaming Strategy: A State-Level Exploration of Potential Gaming Tendencies in the 2007–2009 Period and Implications for Re-directing Research on Gaming Through Test Accommodations

Drawing on state-level panel data for the 2007–2009 period, this study examines the potential overuse of test accommodations for students with disabilities as a gaming strategy to inflate state-level proficiency gains in response to high-stakes accountability pressures. We identify particular conditions under which test accommodations are more likely to be used for gaming and specify several directions for further research.

Improving High-Stakes Decisions via Formative Assessment, Professional Development, and Comprehensive Educator Evaluation: The School System Improvement Project

The accountability movement and high-stakes testing fail to attend to ongoing instructional improvements based on the regular assessment of student skills and teacher practices. The purpose of this article is to describe the School System Improvement Project’s hybrid approach to utilizing both formative and summative assessments to (a) inform decisions about effective instruction based on all students’ and teachers’ needs, and (b) guide high-stakes decisions about teacher effectiveness.

Inclusive Reform as a Response to High-Stakes Pressure? Leading Toward Inclusion in the Age of Accountability

This article reports on a project to better understand how educators grapple with externally imposed pressures as they work to change the organizational structure of their schools to implement greater inclusion of their students served by special education.

The Philosophical Underpinnings and Key Features of the Dynamic Learning Maps Alternate Assessment

The Dynamic Learning Maps™ Alternate Assessment is based on a different set of guiding principles than other assessments. In this article we describe its characteristics and look at the history of alternate assessment and the problems in implementing useful assessment programs for students with significant cognitive disabilities.

Moving Children, Distorting Data: Changes in Testing of Students With Disabilities in Connecticut from 2000–2013

Connecticut experienced two major changes in testing policy for children with disabilities that played a major role in conclusions about educational progress in the state. The responses to these changes in testing policy make Connecticut an illuminating case regarding the problem of high-stakes testing and changes in policies for students with disabilities in a state characterized by deep racial and economic inequity.

Promoting Access Through Segregation: The Emergence of the “Prioritized Curriculum” Class

This paper critically examines a resultant phenomenon of the Standards-Based Reform movement: the emergence of self-contained Prioritized Curriculum classes, designed to provide students with disabilities access to standards-based general education curriculum in segregated classes.

Examining Competing Notions of Social Justice at the Intersections of High-Stakes Testing Practices and Parents’ Rights: An Inclusive Education Perspective

This article examines the tensions that can materialize at the intersection of high-stakes accountability assessments and the rights of parents of students with dis/abilities.

Examining Competing Notions of Social Justice at the Intersections of High-Stakes Testing Practices and Parents’ Rights: An Inclusive Education Perspective

This article examines the tensions that can materialize at the intersection of high-stakes accountability assessments and the rights of parents of students with dis/abilities.

Evaluating Students With Disabilities and Their Teachers: Use of Student Learning Objectives

The purpose of this article is to discuss student learning objectives as components of high-stakes teacher evaluation systems, within the context of learners with special needs.

Evaluating Students With Disabilities and Their Teachers: Use of Student Learning Objectives

The purpose of this article is to discuss student learning objectives as components of high-stakes teacher evaluation systems, within the context of learners with special needs.

Is Educational Policy Alleviating or Perpetuating the Racialization of Disabilities? An Examination of “Big-P” and “Little-p” Policies

This article critically examines the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and No Child Left Behind. Authors demonstrate how and why these policies have failed to adequately ensure that students of color with disabilities receive the educational opportunities the policies were intended to provide.

Intersections of Accountability and Special Education: The Social Justice Implications of Policy and Practice

This article provides a general overview of educational policy and practice as it relates to special education student populations.

Test-Based Education for Students With Disabilities and English Language Learners: The Impact of Assessment Pressures on Educational Planning

This article presents a longitudinal study of an urban charter middle school to examine the impact testing pressures can have on the education of students with disabilities and English language learners, and how this may lead to a narrowing of the content they are taught.

Teaching Outside the Box but Inside the Standards: Making Room for Dialogue

Introduction and Overview to the Yearbook

Introduction to the Yearbook on Accountability Practices and Special Education Services: Impact and Implications

Socioeconomic Disparities in the Use of College Admission-Enhancing Strategies among High School Seniors from the 1990s to 2000s

The study examines whether strategies commonly used by high school students for enhancing their chances of gaining college admissions may contribute to social inequality in postsecondary education. Results indicate that higher SES students are more likely to employ admission-enhancing strategies, and that this gap widened from the 1990s to the 2000s.

Help Them Learn a Language Deeply: Deep Approach to World Languages and Cultures

Social Justice Education, Globalization, and Teacher Education

Engaging Writers with Multigenre Research Projects: A Teacher's Guide

The Transformation of Schools’ Social Networks During a Data-Based Decision Making Reform

This study uses a social network perspective to explore how collaboration in 32 elementary schools in the Netherlands takes shape in the interactions among teachers as they engage in a data-based decision making reform project.