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Classroom observation has changed dramatically in recent years. Trivial checklists have given way to research-based rubrics that describe important aspects of teaching and, for each aspect, explain the difference between more and less effective practice. Instead of asking if the lesson objective was posted, these new instruments typically ask to what extent the objective was clear to students, how well the teacher connected the objective to students' prior knowledge, and to what extent the teacher reinforced the objective throughout the lesson. This clarity around what to look for in a lesson has tremendous potential. It makes it possible for different observers to reach the same conclusions about how well a lesson demonstrates a set of practices that matter to student learning. This is essential for trust and aids decision-making. District leaders also need observers to produce trustworthy data to inform their systemwide investments in professional development. Perhaps less widely understood is that the same agreement about the indicators of effective teaching also enables observers to give more effective feedback. Fortunately, researchers and leading school systems have identified what observers need to know and be able to do--and the kinds of activities that can be used to develop, monitor, and reinforce those skills. This article discusses six skills every observer needs and how to build them: (1) Know the rubric; (2) Collect evidence; (3) Understand bias; (4) Recognize and sort evidence; (5) Use criteria for rating; and (6) Coach teachers.

As "Education Week" marks its 25th anniversary, insiders and observers recall the paper's start and assess its role in fostering a national conversation on schools. "Education Week" is a newspaper which broke a national story on education policy. The independent weekly helped write the first draft of the history of an intense period of change in education, including the decline of busing for desegregation, the rise of the standards movement, debates over teaching methods and educator training, and the resurgence of the federal role. Over time, the newspaper left its mark on the conversation it aimed to foster. Its reporting and guest commentaries helped spread policy and practice by identifying trends and spotlighting issues. Its special reports and series have framed the topics of the day; for the past decade, its annual "Quality Counts" reports have graded states on their policies for school improvement.

Educators from the United States flock to Edmonton, Alberta, a district in Canada where schools control 80% of the district's total budget. Education leaders from Chicago, Colorado, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Minnesota, Oakland, California, and the District of Columbia have all flocked to learn about Edmonton's experience with site-based management of its public schools. For more than two decades, U.S. officials have come here to import ideas from what many regard as the most innovative school system in North America. So many, in fact, that Edmonton officials, in the Canadian province of Alberta, are giving serious thought to charging fees as a way to compensate for the time the visits take away from their work. In this article, the author discusses how Edmonton school officials handle their decision making processes under the conditions surrounding the district.

This article focuses on James P. Spillane's research on distributed leadership. Spillane is the principal investigator for one of the largest studies ever conducted on distributed leadership in education. With $1 million from the National Science Foundation, he has for the past five years led a team of other researchers at Northwestern in studying several schools in Chicago to see what they look like when observed through the distributed-leadership lens. The research involved extensive interviews, observations, and surveys of school staff members. The schools they studied used a range of methods that allowed distributed leadership to occur. The researchers also tapped the Consortium on Chicago School Research at the University of Chicago, which has amassed troves of information on that city's schools from test scores and the consortium's own surveys. Spillane has been highly critical of the way most leadership-preparation programs focus on individuals, stating that school accountability structures often work against distributed leadership by putting so much of the onus on principals. He argues, though, that it is too early to make any claims about distributed leadership and its connection to student outcomes. Instead, he sees it as an important "diagnostic frame"--a tool to help leaders think strategically about exploiting the expertise in their buildings.

The Milken Foundation launched the Teacher Advancement Program (TAP), based on the principles of opportunity and accountability and designed to bolster student performance by creating new incentives, rewards, and supports for teachers as they move up the career ladder (master teachers, mentor teachers, and associate teachers). Because not everyone can be a master or mentor teacher, TAP breeds competition. (SM)

As districts get more assertive in trying to jump-start achievement in their most troubled schools, San Francisco stands out for its emphasis on assistance. Rather than restructure schools, or dictate particular teaching models, the aim is to try first to remove the barriers to good instruction. Called the STAR, short for Students and Teachers Achieving Results, allows low-performing schools to get a full-time substitute teacher, more teacher planning time, and a master educator to lead school-wide training. In this article, the author reports how Glen Park Elementary School, which used to belong to the lowest-performing schools in San Francisco, has benefited from the STAR program.

St. Louis University is one of a growing number of higher education institutions that are retooling their Doctor of Education, or Ed.D., programs to concentrate more on the practical skills required of district leaders. Such programs have emulated the structure of Ph.D. programs, despite the fact that they generally serve a different purpose. At schools of education that offer both degrees, the Ed.D. is for aspiring superintendents and other practitioners, while the Doctor of Philosophy program is for budding academics. In a widely read report, Arthur E. Levine, president of Teachers College, Columbia University, had suggested eliminating the Ed.D. degree which does little to prepare people for the contemporary demands of educational administration. Instead, some universities have sought to differentiate their Ed.D. programs more clearly from their Ph.D. programs. Common strategies involve emphasizing the application of theory to practice and forming more cohesive cohorts of candidates who go through the programs together. Some of the biggest changes are with the dissertation requirement, which some education schools are dropping in favor of team-based projects. This article further discusses the different views and concerns of some education school leaders on this matter.

Lots of districts like to think they have close-knit leadership teams. But few school leaders can say they've ironed their clothes together, which became a morning ritual for a group from San Francisco that spent a week at the Harvard Business School in Boston. Joined by similar teams from seven other large districts, they camped out in dorm-like quarters while engaging in the kind of deep thinking about organizational change that, while common among captains of industry, is rare for most school administrators. The workshop was part of the Public Education Leadership Project, a 2-year-old initiative meant to inject a dose of corporate sense into the way school systems are run. During the intense week, participants discussed case studies, attended lectures, and drafted action plans--some of which already have changed districts' practices. A joint effort of Harvard University's business school and its graduate school of education, the project is part executive training, part research and development. The project has the goal, over three years, of forging a new understanding about redesigning districts to achieve large-scale improvement in student learning. Organizers say districts shouldn't act like businesses so much as think like them. The big idea at the center of the project is "congruence," the alignment of all of a system's parts to drive its mission. Translated to education, that means human resources, facilities, and even transportation are managed to increase the quality of learning.

While about half the states require high school students to pass tests to graduate, or have plans to do so, policymakers in the nation's smallest state have struck out on a path that values multiple ways of measuring achievement. This article reports on state rules adopted two years ago that require Rhode Island districts to design new graduation policies that use measures other than tests to assess students' abilities. The regulations take effect for the class of 2008, but some districts--like the 3,500-student North Providence school system--are ahead of the game. The goal is to prompt schools to stress skills that aren't easily gauged with one-shot tests, such as time management, working with others, and organization. Districts have submitted plans to the state that stress work-related experiences and solving real-world problems. Many want students to give oral reports and assemble portfolios of their work. By all accounts, those activities demand more work of students and teachers. For state policymakers in Rhode Island, the biggest trick is to ensure that all students are held to the same standard, even while pursuing a range of projects. While supporters say the benefits of such activities are many, so are the challenges posed by scaling up the approach to a statewide policy. Even schools already using portfolios and projects say the change has required significant staff training--both on how to guide students and on how to grade their work.

This article describes the successful leadership and management techniques of Roy Romer, Los Angeles Unified School District superintendent, former Colorado governor and general chairman of the Democratic National Committee. The tale illustrates the central irony of Romer's leadership, which is that he is not an educator by trade, and yet, by many accounts, he is more focused on instruction than any Los Angeles schools chief in recent memory. Romer has instituted common instructional programs across the 720,000-student system. He has deployed legions of coaches to help teachers at each school polish their craft. He has also built up a system of regional district offices to monitor and improve classroom practice. According to Romer, the task of figuring out how to improve teaching and learning cannot be left entirely to individual schools.

In this article, the author describes how the "weighted student" funding, under which money is divvied up based on the actual number and kinds of students at each school, gains favor among education leaders. With weighted-student funding, a district divides up money--rather than staff positions and programs--among schools. Proponents also call it "student based" budgeting, because the money follows the student. Interest in weighted-student funding, which Seattle adopted in 1997, is on the rise among education leaders. San Francisco started using it in 2002. Hawaii, with a single, statewide school system, is in the midst of implementing it. Officials in California and Colorado are studying how they could push the model throughout their states.

This article reports results showing that the Independence, Missori school district failed to meet almost every one of its improvement goals under the No Child Left Behind Act. The state accreditation system stresses improvement over past scores, while the federal law demands specified amounts of annual progress toward the ultimate goal of 100 percent proficiency. Missouri gives credit for a narrowing of the achievement gap between low-scoring minority students and their peers, but No Child Left Behind goes further, by expecting the same performance results for all groups of students. While the Independence district did meet last year's performance targets for the federal law, it still failed to make adequate progress, because of the results for its black, Pacific Islander, and special education students. As in many states, Missouri education officials are considering changes to the state accountability system to make it more compatible with No Child Left Behind.

The Education Leaders Council (ELC), founded by dissident state policymakers nearly a decade ago to push a conservative agenda and now the recipient of millions in federal dollars, is trying to resolve questions about its management. Members of the board of directors have voiced concerns in recent months to Chief Executive Officer Lisa Graham Keegan that the council has fallen short of expectations on several counts. This article discusses those concerns raised by the board of directors regarding ELC's management. These concerns include the questions about federally financed projects, the council's lack of success in getting more state leaders to join, and the effectiveness of its overall operations.

As Australia debates whether to become a republic and have a head of state without executive power, it has two models to use as examples. The head of state can be chosen by the people or by the majority of parliament. The Irish Constitution is presented to show an example of how the powers of the head of state can be successfully limited through the Constitution., The 1998 Constitutional Convention in Old Parliament House, Canberra, is the formal opening of a process which could involve a referendum on whether Australia becomes a republic, and what powers [...]

Public journalism encourage readers to participate in the decision making process of their community through town-hall meetings and focus groups. However, the experience of some community reporters shows that they can stay in touch with community members without resorting to such means. Reporters need to seek out groups and organizations which help them in their local coverage. Longtime owners of retail businesses are the most knowledgeable people about a community. Community development corporations, historical societies, churches, and neighborhood newspapers help in public reportage.

With a new and highly critical report card offering a business perspective on the effectiveness of state education systems, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is pushing what it sees as a prescription for more innovative, efficient, and better-performing schools. For the chamber, the grades and policy platform further a concerted new effort to shape education policy. While business organizations have long been part of the national discussion on improving public schools, the chamber's reach is particularly extensive, given its active local and state affiliates. That reach has proved effective in changing state policy in other areas, such as tort reform. In this article, the author discusses the policy platform on improving K-12 state education programs, which was released jointly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Center for American Progress. Their recommendations are: (1) teacher quality; (2) innovative practices; (3) data use; and (4) school management.

This article reports on how Seattle has joined the growing list of urban districts where policymakers are eyeing changes in school governance. A bill pending in the Washington state legislature, introduced late January 2007 by three lawmakers from the city, would permit citizens to petition to hold a local referendum on switching from the elected board to an appointed panel. While the measure would apply to all of the state's 296 school districts, it is aimed squarely at Seattle, where critics say the school board has failed to address critical issues, including closing schools that are under-enrolled. However, opponents of the Washington state measure, including those on the Seattle school board, say the bill is unneeded because the public already can vote board members they do not like out of office in regular elections.

In a field of revolving-door leaders, Thomas W. Payzant is the exception to the rule. Amid the rise and fall of superintendents in city after city, he has led the Boston Public Schools for nearly 11 years. Now, as he prepares to retire, the district offers a rare glimpse of what is possible with stable leadership in urban education. It is a story with many strands, including new curricula, data systems, and teaching methods. A critical ingredient has been staff training woven into the fabric of teachers' jobs. The aim has been to change the way educators think and go about their work. During Mr. Payzant's tenure, the Boston schools have generally matched or bettered statewide gains in student test scores. The district is the only system in the country to have been named a finalist five years running for the Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation's annual prize honoring improvement in urban districts.

Following the approval of legislation that would divide the city's public school system into racially and ethnically distinct districts, many Omaha community members and leaders mid-April 2006 expressed a mix of outrage, confusion, and disbelief. In this article, the author discusses the measure that calls for dividing any school system in the state's largest class of district--Omaha is the only one--into new districts with two or three high schools each and how the community members in Omaha come up with an alternative plan to address an ongoing boundary dispute between the Omaha district and other school systems. Despite the dispute of the controversial state law, some people claim that the legislation that divides Omaha district into three racially and ethnically distinct districts may offer new opportunities for students to transfer between districts by creating a "learning community" among the new Omaha districts and 10 others nearby.

Nebraska lawmakers the week of April 10, 2006 approved a hotly debated bill to break up the Omaha Public Schools--largely along racial and ethnic lines--under a plan that critics say amounts to state-sanctioned segregation and that likely will face a legal challenge. Passed April 13, 2006 in the last hours of the legislative session and signed the same day, by Governor Dave Heineman, the law calls for splitting up the 45,000-student district by 2008. Using current attendance zones as boundaries, the result will be three districts with contrasting demographics: one predominantly black, another mostly white, and the other largely Latino. Backers of the law, which passed on a final vote of 31-16 in the unicameral legislature, also noted that the breakup plan was part of a larger education measure that includes new opportunities for students to transfer, space permitting between districts within the Omaha metropolitan area.

When Mark Smith was principal of Houston's Anderson Elementary School in the early 1990s, he often ran up against a maddening mathematics problem. At the time, the Houston Independent School District doled out money to schools for nonteaching staff members--like assistant principals, clerks, and librarians--based on a set of enrollment formulas that topped out around 1,200 children. With 1,570 students, Anderson got no additional funding for such positions than did much smaller schools. His gripe partly explains why some districts, including the 210,000-student Houston schools, have adopted a "student-based" funding system. Instead of assigning staff positions based on broad enrollment ranges, a student-based system gives money to schools based on the actual number and kinds of students at each site. For a big school like Anderson Elementary, that means added funds for each additional student--and more flexibility in how to spend the money.

President George W. Bush's proposed budget for the coming fiscal year includes a first: school improvement grants to help state education departments turn around schools and districts identified as needing improvement under the No Child Left Behind Act. While calling the $200 million proposal inadequate, some observers say they are encouraged by the recognition that state agencies are struggling as they assume new roles in giving technical assistance at a time when the number of low-performing schools is on the rise. Nationwide, more than 9,000 schools were designated as "in need of improvement," in the 2004-05 school year, meaning they missed their state's academic-performance targets two years in a row, according to the Education Department. That is up from fewer than 6,000 schools the year before. The increase is due largely to the ratcheting-up of achievement goals. (Contains 1 graph.)

Auditing school districts on a regular basis hasn't been part of the comptroller's job description in New York for 20 years. That began to change 18 months ago, when accusations arose about expenses made by a former administrator in Roslyn, a 3,300-student system in an affluent Long Island community. Questionable spending has come to light in more than a dozen school districts in New York state in the wake of a high-profile fraud case in a Long Island district. Prompted by the alleged theft of $11 million in Roslyn, New York, state Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi has sent auditors into 46 districts in recent months. In one district, the superintendent charged $353 on a district credit card for two leather briefcases. In another, a school board member rented a $399-a-night hotel suite at the district's expense. In a third, thousands of dollars were tapped from district accounts for retirement parties. This article describes several measures taken by New York state lawmakers to improve school boards' oversight of district budgeting and prevent budget mismanagement. New York state lawmakers approved funding for Mr. Hevesi to hire 84 additional auditors to check the books of all 700 districts in New York within five years. They also passed a requirement that local school board members get trained on keeping tabs on finances. New York state Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi's office worked with a coalition of education organizations to craft legislation to strengthen financial oversight by school districts. Furthermore, five steps to financial accountability are presented.

When students put down their pencils at the end of Connecticut's testing each year, another intensive process begins. Hundreds of trained evaluators work day and night for about a month to score the written responses. Although expensive, the use of open-ended questions drives the kind of instruction that state leaders say they want in their schools. So they balked when federal officials recently suggested using multiple-choice tests to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. Many states have weighed the cost of hand-scored tests in light of the federal legislation, but the issue is especially pertinent for Connecticut, where Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has pledged to sue over the federal education law. Calling it an unfunded mandate, he cites estimates that the state must spend a total of $8 million of its own money by 2008 to fulfill the law's testing provisions. Federal officials dispute Connecticut's estimate of what it would cost to comply with No Child Left Behind. In a May 3 letter to Betty J. Sternberg, Connecticut's commissioner of education, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings wrote that the kinds of assessments included in the state's calculations are more extensive than spelled out in the NCLB law. The debate shows how politically charged questions about adequate funding for the 3-year-old No Child Left Behind law revolve around ideas of what makes for appropriate testing.

A far-reaching study offers a damning assessment of the programs that prepare most of the nation's principals and superintendents. Led by Arthur E. Levine, the president of Teachers College, Columbia University, the report says most university-based preparation programs for administrators range in quality from "inadequate to appalling." The critique is part of a larger study of education schools spearheaded by Mr. Levine, a nationally known expert on improving higher education who became the college's president in 1994. The Education Schools Project claims to be the most extensive study ever of such institutions. The study charges that administrator programs have been dumbed down by low admissions criteria, irrelevant coursework, unskilled faculty members, and incoherent curricula. In particular, the report derides the rigor of the growing number of off-campus programs created by education schools. Among Mr. Levine's recommendations are the creation of a professional-track graduate program, akin to the Master of Business Administration; the elimination of the Doctor of Education, or Ed.D., degree now held by many superintendents and other administrators; and an end to the financial incentives built into salary schedules that encourage teachers to earn master's degrees in educational administration simply to earn more money.

Virginia state officials selected the University of Virginia to run a training program that will let an experienced school leader earn a credential as a "turnaround specialist." This strategy, borrowed from the corporate world, is meant to form an elite cadre of school leaders that are able to jump-start improvement in low-performing schools. This article discusses the need for the program and describes similar plans in states around the U.S. Despite plans to recruit just 10 principals, state officials said they view the program as a pilot that could be expanded.

This article reports a new debate on mayoral control over New York City schools. Mayoral control of the N.Y.C. schools was at the center of renewed debate, after Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg replaced two members of the city's education policymaking board to ensure enough votes for a controversial plan he backed to end social promotion. The shakeup prompted immediate sparring within the city and in the state capital over whether the mayor had overstepped his authority. Critics accused Bloomberg of using the policy panel as a rubber stamp, and in doing so, violating the spirit of the state law that put him in charge of the nation's largest school system. Some are now calling for new legislation to give the panel more independence. Others, though, applauded Bloomberg for his decisiveness.

Recent research indicates that computers can raise student achievement, but when used the wrong way, they can do more harm than good. The educational benefits of computers are greatest when they are used in sophisticated ways. Any professional development with computers leads to gains in student achievement. Most schools are not using computers in ways that lead to better learning. (SM)

In this article, the author discusses Iowa's deference to local autonomy. Unlike most states, Iowa continues its long history of local independence by allowing districts to set their own goals. In the late 1990s, when the nation's governors and business leaders threw their weight behind the push for statewide academic standards, Iowa begged to differ. With its strong tradition of local control and history for comparatively high performance, the state felt little compulsion to get on the bandwagon. Despite the quirks that come with Iowa's adherence to local control, many in the state believe that district standards spare them some of the mania over test preparation.

This article discusses an educational program in Virginia, wherein principals receive special training, additional compensation, and are eligible for a state credential as a "turnaround specialist." When the program was unveiled, some skeptics questioned its focus on individual leaders and quick results. Principals in the program say what made their success possible was the added support they received form their central offices, the state, community volunteers, and members of their school staffs. The program is the brainchild of Governor Mark Warner who borrowed the idea from business, where turnaround specialists often are hired to restructure failing companies. Here, the author discusses what other educational leaders have to say regarding the developments brought about by the program.

The backlash against the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) was raised to a new level when Connecticut's attorney general announced that his state plans to sue the U.S. Department of Education over the testing mandates in the sweeping federal law. In announcing his intentions, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said he was inviting other states to join the legal challenge, which he said would argue that the law violates federal statute by forcing states to use their own money to carry out its testing requirements. Mr. Blumenthal said that the state would need to spend $8 million by 2008 to comply with the testing requirements of the law and that requiring a state to shoulder such a financial burden goes against a provision in the No Child Left Behind law. Others counter that Connecticut's cost estimates of the NCLB were "flawed," that Connecticut's students are suffering from achievement gaps, and that Connecticut is attacking a law that is designed to help students most in need.

As the competition to lure away qualified teachers intensifies, school districts are becoming sticklers about ensuring that teachers honor their work agreements, making it clear that teachers who breach their contracts could face tough consequences. This paper describes how various school districts have handled the issue and how teachers are reacting to the situation. (SM)