This study uses a school-level longitudinal control-group design to examine how teachers and principals of inspected versus uninspected schools perceive school improvement at their schools. During the phasing in of school inspections in the states of Berlin and Brandenburg (Germany), both inspected and uninspected schools were surveyed with…

There is a general doubt on whether teacher evaluation can contribute to teachers' professional development. Recently, standards-based teacher evaluation has been introduced in many countries to improve teaching practice. This study wants to investigate which teacher evaluation procedural, leadership, and teacher characteristics can stimulate…

The primary aim of this study was to investigate whether and, if so, how formal teacher competence relates to the relationship between pupil reading achievement and teachers judgements' of pupils' reading achievement. The data come from the Swedish participation in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2001 in…

This project investigates the impact of the dynamic approach to school improvement (DASI) aiming to help schools face and reduce bullying through integrating research on bullying with educational effectiveness research (EER). A network of approximately 15 schools in each participating country (i.e., Belgium, Cyprus, England, Greece, and The…

The present study investigates the effects of teachers (background qualifications, attitudes and beliefs, and instructional practices) on student achievement in mathematics, reading, and spelling in 1st grade. Its theoretical framework and methodology are based on recent work by Palardy and Rumberger (2008). Data from the SiBO Project, a…

A brief 15-item version of the California School Climate Scale (Brief-CSCS) is presented to fill a need for a measure that could be used for periodic monitoring of school personnel's general perception of the climate of their school campus. From a sample of 81,261 California school personnel, random subsamples of 2,400 teachers and 2,400…

This study explores the relationship between self-awareness of school leaders and variables related to school culture and change. We used the self-other rating agreement model of Atwater and Yammarino (1997) as an indication of school leader self-awareness. Based on the difference between their own leadership rating and the teachers' rating,…

Shortcomings of educational quality in rural schools remain a key focus in the literature related to developing countries. This paper studies whether rural primary schools in Malaysia, an upper middle-income developing country, are still experiencing lower levels of educational resources, school climate, school leadership, and parental involvement…

Educational disparities between indigenous Maori students and those of the majority continue to be a major issue in New Zealand. Te Kotahitanga, an iterative research and development programme, which commenced in 2001, supports teachers to implement a relationship-based pedagogy in their classrooms in order to improve Maori students' achievement…

Districts are an important unit for administrative purposes, but they vary little in their impact on students' attainment, at least in the UK. Further, government attempts to raise attainment are often disappointing. The project described in this article aimed to engage schools in reform to change students' attainment and attitudes in schools…

This paper presents findings from an exploratory survey of teachers' perceptions, understanding, and use of pupil performance data in English secondary schools and examines the extent to which these are associated with school-level performance and a range of factors, including teachers' positions of responsibility. The survey was supplemented by a…

The relationship between perceived teacher collective efficacy and student problem behaviour was examined in a two-wave study. Participants were 1,100 teachers in 48 Norwegian elementary schools. Questionnaires were completed with approximately 6 months lag. A variance component model suggested a strong intraclass correlation (ICC2) for collective…

Using survey responses from a national sample of US teachers, this paper provides insight into 2 questions: (1) Do 3 specific attributes of leadership behavior--the sharing of leadership with teachers, the development of trust relationships among professionals, and the provision of support for instructional improvement--affect teachers' work with…

This paper implemented a comparative approach to investigate the relationships between test-based school accountability policies in 2 German states and teachers' acceptance and usage of feedback information. Thuringia implemented mandatory tests for secondary schools based on competency modeling and performance data controlled for socioeconomic…

This article clarifies the reasons underlying educators' cultivation of community involvement in their schools and highlights the role that social capital plays and the benefits of partnering. In this qualitative case study, documents, observations, and 25 interviews with head teachers, teachers, and community partners at 2 Ontario secondary…