The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and the Governor of Massachusetts have identified the need to strengthen the state’s education system through the development of regional centers of support. In 2007, DESE drafted a proposal for a Massachusetts system of support to improve student performance. The proposal called for the establishment of educational service cooperatives to provide targeted assistance to schools and districts and to serve as intermediaries between the Department and school districts. In 2008, the Governor’s office assembled the Readiness Finance Commission and charged it with presenting a variety of alternative means to achieve sustainable education funding for current and future needs. The Commission recommended strategies that include significant restructuring measures to realize cost savings and efficiencies. These measures specifically delineate the enhanced use of educational collaboratives. This study examines the perceptions of education leaders at the state and local level regarding the current performance of educational collaboratives in Massachusetts and the potential role educational collaboratives could play in state and district efforts to improve educational effectiveness and increase efficiencies. Interviews and the Collaborative Evaluation Survey were used to analyze the programs and services that school districts purchase from educational collaboratives and the perceived quality and cost-effectiveness of collaborative programs. In addition to interviews with school superintendents, data from interviews with collaborative directors, state education agency leaders, and a state legislator were analyzed to explore the potential role that educational collaboratives could play in state and district education improvement efforts. The study found: (1) school districts in Massachusetts continue to use educational collaboratives for the same purposes as they did when collaboratives were first created; (2) the majority of school district leaders have positive perceptions of collaborative programs and services; (3) school district input, perceived cost-effectiveness, and collaborative responsiveness are major factors that influence school district utilization of educational collaboratives; and (4) unstable funding and the absence of a structured statewide network constrain the capacity of educational collaboratives. The study also identified the need for more research on the cost-effectiveness and impact of programs educational collaboratives offer. Without additional research, policy makers in Massachusetts risk creating duplicative regional systems of support. State leaders also risk assuming that collaboratives have the capacity to address problems when evidence may indicate otherwise.

The study examined the issues of access in public and private higher education institutions in Islamabad, Pakistan. The policies and institutions currently in place to deal with access related issues are not effective, therefore, not providing students with the support systems to help them succeed at the institutions of higher learning. The study analyzed student perspectives on access, examined access related systems in place at public and private institutions, and kind of students that have access to higher education. The study also analyzed the growth of higher education institutions and their impact on access related issues particularly in last eight years. Continuous planning, support and development needed to provide higher education is discussed. In addition, the research discussed opportunities and challenges experienced by students before entering college, processes involved entrance at college and after arriving at college. Moreover, similarities and dissimilarities between public and private institutions are also discussed. The study makes suggestions to improve access related systems to help students be successful and the need and ways how can they be further developed and strengthened is also discussed. The hope is that this research will contribute to well in-formed policy making that takes into account the complexities of the forces that shape higher education and the development of Pakistan.

The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze principal behaviors and leadership characteristics that positively influence the organizational coherence and capacity of schools and subsequently, positively influence student achievement. This was achieved through the use of an in-depth, exploratory multi-case study design that examined the leadership of two principals of urban elementary schools who had led their schools from being underperforming to performing. The two findings of this study are that 1) instructional leaders engage in work that either directly or indirectly: focuses on learning for students and adults; communicates high expectations for student achievement and instruction; uses data to inform the work of the school, and develops a community that is unified around one vision and one mission for the school; and 2) the actions of principals that demonstrate the leadership traits of being carried by strong professional will and being personally humble and modest influence the level of effectiveness of the work of the principal in positively influencing student achievement. The findings of this study were the result of analysis of data that was gathered through a review of relevant documents, interviews with principals and teachers, and the identification and observation of artifacts that were identified through the interview as being the most important to improving student achievement. Based on these findings, the following conclusions were made: the construct of instructional leadership is defined by two elements—the work of the principal and the leadership of the principal. The principal's influence in each of the elements of the work of the principal may be direct or indirect. The leadership traits of principals who are instructional leaders are defined as carried by strong professional will and being personally humble and modest. These leadership traits are not necessarily balanced—one may be stronger than the other—but they are necessary for the development of shared ownership of outcomes on the part of teachers. The findings of this study provide clarity. Instructional leadership is not a one size fits all idea whose existence is linked to a single measure of student achievement but is instead a framework to be implemented and defined in practice by individual principals based upon their personal strengths and the needs of their schools.