The purpose of this guide is to provide states, districts, and schools with information and support to prepare applications for 2015-2016 School Improvement Grants (SIGs). The guide includes tools, checklists, and questions for SEAs and LEAs aligned with the revised SIG requirements, primarily focused on how to leverage the "planning…

The ESEA Blueprint for Reform states that teachers need "effective, ongoing, job-embedded, professional development that is targeted to student and school needs… [and] aligned with evidence of improvements in student learning." Unfortunately, the professional development approaches advocated, though sensible and compelling in theory,…

IMPACT is a media and technology program designed to support and promote effective instruction through the integration of technology. The model is currently being implemented in 30 K-12 schools throughout North Carolina. This evaluation study investigated the effects of this model on the attitudes, behaviors, and activities of students and…

A brief description of the development of the ESEA Title I evaluating and reporting system is provided. An analysis and assessment of the kinds of concerns state evaluation officers have about implementing the new guidelines are outlined. Appropriate recommendations based on the findings are provided. (Author/AL)

Evaluating the charge that federal regulation of education is "excessive" entails a political analysis of regulatory problems and of the relative cost efficiencies of providing equal educational opportunity, the goal of much federal regulation. The theoretical framework for this political explanation emphasizes the "implementation…

An intergovernment program implementation framework is shown to be strongly affected by the way federal expectations and administrative actions interact with the state and local education agency programs. They can influence the components of categories of implementation factors, process variables, and the agency role orientations. (CM)

This report presents the analytic plan for a study of demonstration Title I projects. The study is to be one of distributional equity: what kinds of instructional services are received by what kinds of students. It is mandated by the United States Congress and will provide the basic analysis for possible modifications in the Elementary and…

A comparative case analysis of four urban school districts--Baltimore (Maryland), Dade County (Florida), Milwaukee (Wisconsin), and San Diego (California)--studied the effects of fiscal capacity and local interest group organization and influence on district program compliance and the degree of integration of federal categorical aid programs into…

Four problems underlying the delivery of technical assistance in Elementary Secondary Education Act (ESEA) Title I evaluation are discussed: (1) the dual missions of facilitating the implementation of the Title I Evaluation and Reporting System and of facilitating the local use of evaluation information frequently require tradeoffs between…

Program improvement activities can be classified into four categories based on the source of the impetus and the locus of the change agent: systematic, symbolic, opportunistic, and pragmatic. This paper (1) describes the various approaches to implementing Chapter 1 program improvement activities at the state and local district levels in 13 western…

An ethnographic approach to the evaluation of an Elementary Secondary Education Act Title I mathematics project designed for grades 3 and 5 low-achieving students is described. The research was designed as a series of eight disaggregated single case studies of the implementation of the project with the classroom serving as the unit. The focus of…