Oregon's Effective Behavioral and Instructional Support Systems (EBISS) initiative was implemented in 25 school districts. The initiative trained and coached district leaders and teachers in the use of the EBISS model through the lens of implementation science. The EBISS model integrates school-wide positive behavior intervention and supports…

A quality improvement system (QIS) is an intentional effort to raise the quality of afterschool programming in an ongoing, organized fashion. There are a number of reasons the QIS is gaining popularity. The main reasons community leaders are drawn to improving quality is that they know that 1) higher quality programs will mean better experiences…

This study analyzed three different middle school mathematics formative assessment programs, examining how features of each program were associated with the information they provided to teachers and the manner in which teachers used the information. The research team found considerable variation in the information teachers obtained from each…

The Improving Teacher Quality (ITQ) program released Requests for Proposals in March for the next round of teacher professional development projects. The first RFP, Addressing the Achievement Gap in Middle Schools (AAGMIS), is for stand-alone grants similar to the 2008 projects that target the achievement gap in elementary schools. The second RFP,…

This report covers the second year of a 3-year process evaluation of the Prime Time Initiative of Palm Beach County, Florida, a system-building effort to strengthen the availability and quality of after-school programs in the county. During the past two decades, the after-school field has expanded enormously. This growth has occurred partly in…

The purpose of this article is to describe the Quality Educators Academy (QEA), a year-long training for K-8 classroom teachers that was funded by a NC ESEA Title II-A Improving Teacher Quality (NC QUEST) Grant. Key features of the project as well as the design and content of the training contributed to success in recruiting, retaining, and…

The effect of a 15- to 24-month in-service professional development (PD) program on state accountability mathematics test scores for middle school students was examined using a quasi-experimental design. Middle level mathematics teachers (n = 128) from 7 school districts and 64 middle schools volunteered for a PD sequence of content-oriented…

School improvement demands focus. Staff members at James Cashman Middle School in Las Vegas, Nevada, believe that student achievement comes from challenging every student and ensuring that no student is overlooked. Adopting this belief could not have come at a better time for the school. Cashman's students were struggling. The school was in the…

Two schools in Idaho received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Jefferson Middle School; and (2) Lakeside Elementary School. The experiences of this non-recipient school is…

Two schools in Michigan received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement their improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Phoenix Elementary-Middle School; and (2) Arthur Hill High School. The experiences of these…

A collaborative partnership provides school administrators and university researchers an opportunity to evaluate a school-based initiative. Richards Middle School (RMS) in Columbus, Georgia identified school improvement goals and involved university researchers in a collaborative evaluation with implications for strengthening leadership, training,…

The convergence of two apparently opposite theories of urban educational reform is analyzed as it occurs in three middle schools in a New York City school district. The first theory, emphasizing small schools of choice, promotes close relationships between students and adults in distinctive school programs. The second--centralized, standards-based…

During the 1990s, a new policy hypothesis focusing on the quality of teaching to provide a high-leverage means for improving student achievement began to gain currency. Based on interview, observation, survey, and record data collected at the state, district, and school levels over a five-year time period, the study offers a look at how the San…