The recommendations in this brief create a framework for using data effectively to make instructional decisions. The availability of student-level data for educators has pushed forward the movement to strengthen the role of data to guide instruction and improve student learning. While improvements in technology and assessments, as well as recent…

In this book, best-selling author Susan M. Brookhart helps teachers and administrators understand the critical elements and nuances of assessment data and how that information can best be used to inform improvement efforts in the school or district. Readers will learn: (1) What different kinds of data can--and cannot--tell us about student…

Education data are growing in quantity, quality, and value. When appropriately used to guide action, data can be a powerful tool for improving school operations, teaching, and learning. Education stakeholders who possess the knowledge, skills, and abilities to appropriately access, analyze, and interpret data will be able to use data to take…

Class-size reduction (CSR) has been a complex and contentious issue for the last quarter century. Although the small-class concept was adopted because it appealed to common sense, research over time has revealed a mix of confounding variables, instead of a definitive conclusion. Some CSR efforts, such as Tennessee's Project STAR and Wisconsin's…

How television can be used to develop and reinforce important citizenship traits is discussed. Described are student activities dealing with acquiring and using information, assessing information, making decisions, making judgments, communicating ideas to others, cooperating with others, and promoting and protecting one's interests. (RM)

Reviews some of the problems involved in the evaluation of educational software, and describes a classroom-based case study approach to software evaluation intended for application by autonomous self-programming groups of teachers. (20 references) (Author/CLB)

This guide is intended for use in training counselors who are involved with their clients' career decision-making processes. A primary objective of the curriculum is to familiarize participants with labor market information (LMI) resources and help them develop ways to use these resources with their clients. The following topics are covered in the…

This curriculum guide presents learning activities for use by facilitators in Parent Time sessions in the Family Literacy Program, a part of Kentucky's Parent and Child Educational Program (PACE). In Parent Time sessions, PACE instructors share information with parents, and parents practice family life skills. The learning activities used in the…

This book meets a critical assessment need which is the need to develop legally and educationally defensible assessment procedures for use with non-English language background students who are still in the process of learning English. The purpose of this text is to provide educators with both the information on which to make effective educational…

Achievement gaps have real consequences for students, particularly those facing the challenge of passing the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), now a requirement in order to receive a high school diploma in California. The combined 2005 CAHSEE passing rates reveal significant discrepancies between White and Asian students and their African…