This qualitative case study reports on processes and outcomes of the National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded System-Wide Change for All Learners and Educators (SCALE) project at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison). It addresses a critical challenge in studying systemic reform in complex organizations: the lack of methodologies that…

Federal programs, such as the National Science Foundation's Math and Science Partnership program, are promoting partnerships between K-12 school districts and higher education institutions (K-20 partnerships) in hopes of fostering greater alignment and cooperation among participating institutions and pooling resources to address persistent…

A common theme in policy discussions of teacher quality is that K-12 teacher salaries need to be increased. While raising pay may attract more people to the occupation and improve retention, it is not completely obvious how much pay levels should be increased. One way to determine the pay level needed has been to compare teacher pay to pay levels…

This report of the National Science Foundation-funded SCALE Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Case Studies line of work provides preliminary findings about SCALE activities at the California State University, Northridge (CSUN). This interview-based study (N = 19) includes a descriptive analysis of SCALE activities and an exploratory analysis…

To explore whether teachers' attitudes toward pay for performance are the result of experience or socialization, or whether teachers are already predisposed to prefer pay systems not based on performance, and whether some forms of performance pay might be preferred to others, a study was conducted of the pay system preferences of students…

Systemic efforts to implement data-based decision making at the school and classroom level face several challenges. First, most data available within district information systems are limited to what has been deemed important for the operational needs of schools and the district. Second, educational organizations have little experience integrating…

This newsletter presents a critical view of some of the perils of translating research findings into classroom practice without careful examination of the human dimensions involved. The first issue discussed is ability grouping; it is pointed out that this practice does not necessarily increase academic achievement, particularly in the lower level…