(Published in Cooperation with the Laboratory for Student Success, Temple University)

Most of the research contained in this book was supported by grants to the individual authors from the American Educational Research Association Grants Program.

This volume is not primarily concerned with what students should learn, nor even how they should learn. Rather it concerns how we can discover the best means and conditions for teaching them in school, at home, and in society. Expressed more explicitly, we seek to find out how students can learn efficiently or productively as much as possible within a given amount of time and resources. As in agriculture, medicine, public health, and modern industries, we can turn to rigorous science as one of the best sources for informing ourselves. The intended audiences are not only scholars in a variety of academic disciplines but also research consumers, including educators, policymakers, parents, and citizens who seek principles to critically separate valid from invalid claims for the efficacy and efficiency of education products, personnel, and policies. Initial versions of the chapters were discussed at a national invitational conference sponsored by the Laboratory for Student Success (LSS), the mid-Atlantic regional educational laboratory, at Temple University Center for Research in Human Development and Education. LSS operates under a contract with the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of Education Sciences.

Co-published by Routledge for the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Educational policy continues to be of major concern. Policy debates about economic growth and national competitiveness, for example, commonly focus on the importance of human capital and a highly educated workforce. Defining the theoretical boundaries and methodological approaches of education policy research are the two primary themes of this comprehensive, AERA-sponsored Handbook. Organized into seven sections, the Handbook focuses on (1) disciplinary foundations of educational policy, (2) methodological perspectives, (3) the policy process, (4) resources, management, and organization, (5) teaching and learning policy, (6) actors and institutions, and (7) education access and differentiation. Drawing from multiple disciplines, the Handbook’s over one hundred authors address three central questions: What policy issues and questions have oriented current policy research? What research strategies and methods have proven most fruitful? And what issues, questions, and methods will drive future policy research? Topics such as early childhood education, school choice, access to higher education, teacher accountability, and testing and measurement cut across the 63 chapters in the volume. The politics surrounding these and other issues are objectively analyzed by authors and commentators. Each of the seven sections concludes with two commentaries by leading scholars in the field. The first considers the current state of policy design, and the second addresses the current state of policy research. This book is appropriate for scholars and graduate students working in the field of education policy and for the growing number of academic, government, and think-tank researchers engaged in policy research. For more information on the American Educational Research Association, please visit: http://www.aera.net/.

Improving Schools to Promote Learning is a concise and common-sense examination of all the moving parts that drive student learning. The book ties together the research, policies, and practices relative to the state, district, school, classroom, and family, and explains their effects on student learning. The author covers an array of topics, including technology, charter schools, turnaround initiatives, and instruction in specific subject areas. Herbert J. Walberg’s book continues the work of previous publications from the Center on Innovation & Improvement (Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement and Handbook on the Statewide Systems of Support) that connect research to practice at various levels of the education system. The book is accessible to a wide audience, including educators, school board members, parents, and policy makers. Walberg includes action steps in every chapter, providing practical recommendations for improved student achievement. The author also offers select references for additional material on the best research and most effective practices.

Resource allocation decisions made by school boards, principals, and teachers are critical for they determine the adequacy and equity of resources actually made available for specific schools, educational programs and individual students. The most important resources are often concealed by aggregate state or district measures such as dollars per student. For these decisions, the most important resources are elements such as basic and supplemental staffing levels, staff time, funding amounts for textbooks and supplies, selection of new equipment (particularly technology), and support for new or renovated facilities. The authors review current practices at each important decision-making level in school districts, from the school board to the classroom. At each juncture, the findings are interpreted to reveal both the causes of the practices and their implications for improving school effectiveness. This book provides new research in helping to inform and improve resource allocation practices in schools. The general conclusion is that improvement in the resource allocation practices in education requires a shift in focus to results instead of inputs, a strong emphasis on student learning as the primary focus of decisions, and systematic evaluation of results.

School effectiveness and school improvement have different origins: School effectiveness is more directed to finding out "what works" in education and "why"; school improvement is practice and policy oriented and intended to change education in the desired direction. However, in their orientation to outcomes, input, processes, and context in education, they also have much in common. In the theoretical part, different orientations have been analysed and combined in a model for effective school improvement. Based on this analysis, an evaluation framework was developed for the analysis of the case studies of school improvement projects in the participating countries. The theoretical model and the results of the analyses of the case studies were combined in a framework of effective school improvement.

This yearbook focuses on alternative ways to measure how well schools are educating their students, delivering what parents want, and using resources efficiently.