For many years English learners (ELs) have lagged behind native speakers of English in the academic community. In an era of accountability, the pressure to achieve and maintain Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) status is increasing the burden of success on ELs, especially when trying to learn a second language. The population of English learners is…

Paul Jablon's "The Synergy of Inquiry" (2014) is well-timed. The 2014 deadline set by No Child Left Behind (NCLB, 2002) for universal student proficiency has come and gone, and according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, "proficiency rates last year were below 50 percent for nearly every racial and ethnic group, in…

Rapid adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), the Race to the Top (RTTT) competition, and backlash around these policies created widespread uncertainty among state educational agencies (SEAs). SEAs may have not had a clear direction about how to support standards implementation in a new context, and therefore, may have looked to their…

Federal incentives and requirements under the Obama administration spurred states to adopt major reforms to their teacher evaluation systems. We examine the effects of these reforms on student achievement and attainment at a national scale by exploiting their staggered implementation across states. We find precisely estimated null effects, on…

The Race to the Top (RTTT) federal grant program was an initiative that targeted improving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education. However, the evaluation of the program reported only student outcomes for mathematics and reading/language arts. The purpose of this study was to estimate the effects of RTTT program on…

The Southern Conference on Language Teaching (SCOLT), like many other language-related organizations, flourishes in the context of periodic educational agendas and reforms, in turn, influenced by economic, political, and social ideologies of the time, and it is therefore instructive to revisit briefly the educational landscape of the previous two…

States participating in the four federally-funded assessment consortia are required to establish a "common definition of English Learner." This includes the two Race to the Top academic assessment consortia and the two Enhanced Assessment Grant English language proficiency (ELP) assessment consortia. This paper provides guidance that…

American students in the 21st century are growing up with Internet accessible technology available at their fingertips. Considering this and the continued pressure to compete in a global society, The United States' Department of Education's National Education Technology Plan (NETP) (2010) calls for educators to leverage technology in order to…

This study examines the trends of the U.S. states' reading and math proficiency standards before and after the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and explores their impact on school practices and student achievement. Drawing on the 2003-15 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grades 4 and 8 assessment and survey…

This publication highlights a series of video clips featuring an overview and discussion of the Engaging Educators guide among State and local educational agency leaders from Race to the Top grantee States. [For "Engaging Educators: A Reform Support Network Guide for States and Districts," see ED611481.]

As the Race-to-the-Top Assessment Consortia develop their assessments, they will need to develop shared accommodations policies to ensure that their tests are used in consistent ways across the participating states. Developing a common set of accommodations policies will require that Consortium members recognize the divergent viewpoints that…

The use of standardized test results to drive school administrator evaluations pervades education policymaking in more than 40 states. However, the results of state standardized tests are strongly influenced by non-school factors. The models of best fit (n = 18) from this correlational, explanatory, longitudinal study predicted accurately the…

Race to the Top (RTT), one of the Obama administration's signature programs and one of the largest federal government investments in an education grant program, received $4.35 billion in funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Through three rounds of competition in 2010 and 2011, RTT awarded grants to states that…

Race to the Top (RTT), one of the Obama administration's signature programs and one of the largest federal government investments in an education grant program, received $4.35 billion in funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Through three rounds of competition in 2010 and 2011, RTT awarded grants to states that…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 injected $7 billion into two of the Obama administration's signature competitive education grant programs: Race to the Top (RTT) and School Improvement Grants (SIG). While RTT focused on state policies and SIG focused on school practices, both programs promoted related policies and practices,…