New Hampshire's Performance Assessment of Competency Education (PACE) innovative assessment system uses student scores from classroom performance assessments as well as other classroom tests for school accountability purposes. One concern is that not having annual state testing may incentivize schools and teachers away from teaching the breadth of…

The math intervention program, Assessment and Learning in Knowledge Spaces (ALEKS), at a Public Middle School (pseudonym) in the Northeast United States, was implemented for eighth grade middle school math students, but researchers have not measured its effectiveness. Grounded in the cultural relevance pedagogy, the purpose of this quantitative…

The purpose of this study was to study the impact on student performance due to participation in the Catapult Learning Intervention program in the Mathematics and Reading services offered in a religious non-public school system in the Northeastern United States from grades 6-8. Student scaled scores from the NWEA MAP assessments administered at…

Design2Learn (D2L) is a NYC-based afterschool program aimed at increasing middle school students' interest, engagement, and achievement in science. Designed by ExpandED Schools, D2L centers around three core strategies: (1) collaborative teaching between an in-school science teacher and two afterschool educators; (2) curricular bridging, which…

Design2Learn (D2L) is an afterschool program aimed at increasing science interest, engagement, and achievement among middle school students who historically have been underrepresented in STEM. The D2L model, designed and implemented by ExpandED Schools, uses three core strategies to foster students' interest and engagement in science: (1)…

We present results of an evaluation of the first year of a multi-year comprehensive middle school reading program. Four public middle schools in rural Virginia with large populations of students with limited reading proficiency participated in a study to determine the reading program's impact. We evaluated 235 students with low reading achievement…

Inquiry-based science interventions aim to improve students' science proficiency by helping them understand scientific processes. In these interventions, students conduct hands-on investigations of science concepts and everyday phenomena, construct explanations for what they observe, consider alternative explanations, and communicate and justify…

The Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative and Green River Regional Educational Cooperative received an Investing in Innovation (i3) development grant from the U.S. Department of Education to implement the Creating College and Career Readiness (C3R) initiative. The initiative offered a suite of software developed by WIN Learning (WIN) to support…

This article presents the findings of an evaluation of the eMINTS (enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies) professional development program. eMINTS is an intensive teacher professional development program designed to promote inquiry-based learning, support high-quality lesson design, build community among students and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a Web-based mathematics program, Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) Stanford Math, on mathematics achievement of fourth- through eighth-grade students in a metropolitan school district. Few studies have researched a Web-based mathematics program that provides an individualized,…

Performance-based accountability along with budget tightening has increased pressure on publicly funded organizations to develop and deliver programs that produce meaningful social benefits. As a result, there is increasing need to undertake formative evaluations that estimate preliminary program outcomes and identify promising program components…

The study reviewed in this paper examined the effect of school choice on the criminal activity, academic achievement, and high school graduation rate of more than 2,000 male middle and high school students in North Carolina's Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district. For the 2002-03 school year, all district students were given the choice to either…

This is the first of two reports that summarize the findings from an impact evaluation of a violence prevention intervention for middle schools. This report discusses findings after 1 year of implementation. A forthcoming report will discuss the findings after 2 years and 3 years of implementation. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Education (ED)…

New Jersey After 3 (NJ After 3) is a private, nonprofit organization whose mission is to expand and improve afterschool opportunities for New Jersey's youth. Using both public and private resources, it supports a network of youth-service providers that deliver afterschool services based on NJ After 3's program model. Under an agreement with NJ…