For three school years, from 2007 to 2010, about 200 high-needs New York City public schools participated in the Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program, whose broad objective was to improve student performance through school-based financial incentives. An independent analysis of test scores, surveys, and interviews found that the program did not improve student achievement, perhaps because it did not motivate change in educator behavior.

For three school years, from 2007 to 2010, about 200 high-needs New York City public schools participated in the Schoolwide Performance Bonus Program, whose broad objective was to improve student performance through school-based financial incentives. An independent analysis of test scores, surveys, and interviews found that the program did not improve student achievement, perhaps because it did not motivate change in educator behavior.

Big cities have struggled to improve public school systems. This book shows why—and offers a framework for achieving future success. Fullan and Boyle, internationally renowned thinkers on school change, demonstrate that while the educational challenges of big cities may be overwhelming, they are not insurmountable. They draw on ten years’ of research to identify six essential “push” and “pull” actions that enable big school systems to improve student achievement. Leaders must push to challenge the status quo, convey a high sense of urgency, and have the courage needed to intervene. But they need to also pull together to create a commonly-owned strategy, develop professional power, and attend to sustainability. Examining three major cities—New York, Toronto, and London—through the decade of 2002–2012, this book weaves case studies with careful analysis and recommendations to hone in on which policies and strategies work best to raise the bar for all students and reduce the gap for the disadvantaged. Big-City School Reforms offers invaluable advice to those leading the next phase of school reform in cities around the world. This is an eminently practical book that focuses on big problems and big solutions. “This encouraging book draws on the recent experiences of New York, London, and Toronto to identify what it takes to transform big-city school systems. It recognises their complexities without being overawed by them. By concentrating on the factors that seem to matter most, it offers real hope that we can now tackle some of the key issues that have frustrated reform efforts in the past.” —Geoff Whitty, director emeritus, Institute of Education, University of London, UK "Fullan and Boyle present a compelling framework for motivating and sustaining improvement in large urban school districts. The authors’ premise that system leaders must optimally balance push and pull strategies serves as an important lesson to school-level leaders as well.” —Sandra J. Stein, education and leadership consultant “In this important new book, Fullan and Boyle answer the most important question facing the leaders of the world's major cities: what will it take to significantly improve the quality of public education? Through a sophisticated analysis of the policies pursued in New York, Toronto, and London, the authors make it possible for us to see why some cities are making more progress than others. Their clear and compelling insights couldn't be more relevant and timely.” —Pedro A. Noguera, Peter L. Agnew Professor of Education, Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Development, Executive Director, Metropolitan Center for Urban Education, New York University Michael Fullan, Order of Canada, is professor emeritus of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Alan Boyle is director of Leannta Education Associates where he designs professional learning for education leaders.

This book provides an in-depth analysis of a performance-based pay initiative and crystalizes the design issues and implementation challenges that confounded efforts to translate this promising policy into practice. This story has much to say to academics and policymakers who are trying to figure out the combinations of incentives and the full range of resources required to establish incentive programs that promote an adequate supply and equitable distribution of capable and committed educators for our public schools. The book uncovers the conditions that appear to be necessary, if not fully sufficient, for performance-based initiatives to have a chance to realize their ambitious aims and the research that is required to guide policy development. In so doing, the authors consider the thorny question of whether performance-based pay systems for educators are worth the investment. Book Features: Examines the use of educator compensation reform as a tool to improve human capital in chronically low-performing schools. Analyzes how a theoretically promising incentive program actually plays out in schools. Documents policy implementation and its impacts through the experiences and voices of teachers and school administrators. Concludes with clear and actionable recommendations for policy and research.

During the mid-to-late 20th Century, education law emerged as a distinct area of practice and scholarship in the United States. Attorneys began to develop specialties representing school districts, students, parents, and teachers, while law schools and colleges of education started to offer courses about the legal regulation of K-12 public schools. The statutory and common law governing schools grew rapidly, and developed in a manner that often treated public schools differently from other governmental entities. Now, law schools and colleges of education regularly offer an education law course. Many states' school administrator certificates require some familiarity with education law. The scholarly field of education law is rich and deep. Attorneys play a key role in education policy, as do state and federal legislatures and regulatory agencies. The issues range from school funding to supporting English learners; from racial equality to teachers' labor laws; from student privacy to school choice. Addressing those issues and more, The Oxford Handbook of U.S. Education Law provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of K-12 education law in the United States. A number of foundational chapters present a synthesis of general areas of law for those who seek an introduction. Dozens of other chapters build on those foundations, diving into various topics in a nuanced, yet accessible, way, creating value for those who seek to deepen or reframe their knowledge about a specific issue. Throughout the volume and especially in the last section, the authors also look to the future and thus help shape the direction of the field.

Handbook of the Economics of Education, Volume Seven describes the research frontier in key topical areas and sets the agenda for further work. Sections in this new release include Methods for Measuring School Effectiveness, Teacher Evaluation and Training, U.S. School Finance: Resources and Outcomes, College Costs, Financial Aid, and Student Decisions, Firm Training, Multidimensional Human Capital and the Wage Structure, and more. By bringing together some of the world's leading scholars, this volume provides a unique view of scholarship in the area. The international perspectives of the editors – Hanushek at Stanford, Machin at LSE, and Woessmann at Munich – leads to a volume with something for all researchers. Topics range from the economics of early childhood education to inequality in society to cash transfers in developing countries. - Identifies and evaluates the state-of-the-art - Includes clear descriptions of the meaning of existing research and the most likely avenues for the future - Provides insights into how policy interventions in education can help or hurt human capital outcomes

A fascinating account of how radical researchers have used experiments to overturn conventional wisdom and shaped life as we know it Experiments have consistently been used in the hard sciences, but in recent decades social scientists have adopted the practice. Randomized trials have been used to design policies to increase educational attainment, lower crime rates, elevate employment rates, and improve living standards among the poor. This book tells the stories of radical researchers who have used experiments to overturn conventional wisdom. From finding the cure for scurvy to discovering what policies really improve literacy rates, Leigh shows how randomistas have shaped life as we know it. Written in a “Gladwell-esque” style, this book provides a fascinating account of key randomized control trial studies from across the globe and the challenges that randomistas have faced in getting their studies accepted and their findings implemented. In telling these stories, Leigh draws out key lessons learned and shows the most effective way to conduct these trials.