This article describes the design and implementation of external support to low-performing schools using data from Chicago and California. Using the literature on external support, instructional capacity, and policy strength, the study gathered data from interviews, observations, document review, and surveys. The findings suggest that the model of…

Situated in the heart of the fertile San Joaquin Valley twenty miles north of Fresno, the city of Madera has a population of 56,710 people. Agriculture is the driving force behind the local economy; the area produces more than 100 crops including raisin grapes, almonds, figs, pistachios, alfalfa, corn, milk, cattle and poultry. The total value of…

The Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) provides funding for states and territories to provide instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), Adult Basic Education (ABE), and Adult Secondary Education (ASE) to adults in need of these literacy services. California State Budget Act…

Community colleges operate under much scrutiny these days, and these institutions have experienced a growing emphasis on performance indicators as paths to institutional accountability. California's system of 109 community colleges recently developed and implemented an innovative accountability program that used peer group comparison as one of its…

Over the past decade, school districts and states have made impressive advances in collecting and managing data used for accountability purposes. By the year 2011, all 50 states will have systems to track students from year to year. But in most states and districts, all the data generated by these systems flows only one way: up. This paper…

The "Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 (Perkins IV)" reinforces a longstanding federal commitment to supporting career and technical education (CTE). Although federal contributions account for only a fraction of total state and local spending on CTE, federal policy has had, and continues to have, a large…

Background/Context: Peer Assistance and Review (PAR), or peer review as it has historically been called, has existed in a handful of school districts since the early 1980s. In 1999, California became the first state to pass PAR legislation; at that time, a major district had not implemented the policy in over a decade. Setting: This is an in-depth…

This study was conducted to examine instructional strategies and resource allocation in successful schools. The study was based on analysis of six effective Southern California elementary schools. All the analyzed schools were Title I, non-charter public schools that had demonstrated consistent student achievement, had narrowed the achievement gap…

Spurred by the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001, virtually every educational reform program now includes an accountability component that requires sound data collection and reporting (NCLB, 2002, section 101). Drawing from empirically based and theoretical literature in the field, this dissertation examines Adequate Yearly Progress…

The Federal Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Title II: Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) provide funding for states and territories to provide instruction in English as a Second Language (ESL), Adult Basic Education (ABE), and Adult Secondary Education (ASE) to adults in need of these literacy services. California State Budget Act…

In 2000, the California State Legislature passed the Schiff-Cardenas Crime Prevention Act, which authorized funding for county juvenile-justice programs and designated the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) (formerly named the Board of Corrections) the administrator of funding. A 2001 California Senate bill extended the funding and changed the…

Online education continues to permeate mainstream teaching techniques in higher education settings. Teaching upper-level classes in an online setting is having a major impact on education as a whole and is fundamentally altering global learning. "Cases on Critical and Qualitative Perspectives in Online Higher Education" offers a…

The Scale-Up Pre-K Mathematics project, was conducted at a customary program-wide level of scale in Head Start and state-funded preschool programs in California and Kentucky/Indiana. The objectives of this randomized field trial were twofold: (1) to determine whether the intervention, the Pre-K Mathematics curriculum, continues to be effective…

In California, the James Irvine Foundation created ConnectEd: The California Center for College and Career to promote multiple pathways that link to the state's 15 major industry sectors. The ConnectEd Network of Schools, a demonstration project supported by Irvine, plays a critical role in expanding student options through multiple pathways and…

In a series of reforms started in 1998 and formalized with the 2000 introduction of the Blueprint for Student Success, the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) implemented a wide-ranging series of reforms designed to boost the literacy skills of students. This article provides an overview of the reforms, assesses the contributions made by the…