The purpose of this brief is to provide school-level examples of how early college practitioners are collecting and using data to improve their practices. Examples three and four are school-level data from two early college partnerships: the MetroWest CPC (Framingham, Milford, Waltham), and Lawrence. The brief begins, however, with the national…

Non-parental arrangements for young children serve a dual function as supports for parental activities and educational inputs for children. However, arrangements that are suited to meet families' specific needs and preferences are sometimes in tension with experts' definitions of "quality." Researchers and policymakers increasingly…

Improving rates of honors program completion is a goal of virtually all honors directors and deans, and research can help identify and evaluate promising strategies. A number of recent empirical studies have investigated predictors of program completion, including students' admission credentials and honors program features. Though specific…

This study investigated the relationships between teacher collaboration practices known as working as a professional learning community (PLC) and student performance. Through a review of the current literature, an operational framework of PLCs was developed that distinguished results-oriented from inquiry-oriented PLCs. The study considered the…

Due to the decrease in public funding, community colleges are in a position where they need to generate private gifts. Alumni represent the largest untapped pool of prospective donors, and the success of alumni giving at 4-year institutions illustrates the potential that exists for community colleges. To develop effective fundraising strategies,…

An early warning system is a data-based tool that helps predict which students are on the right path towards eventual graduation or other grade-appropriate goals. Through such systems, stakeholders at the school and district levels can view data from a wide range of perspectives and gain a deeper understanding of student data. This "Statewide…

The development of community-based alternatives to institutional care for juvenile offenders should be based on (1) a clear conceptualization of what "community-based" means, (2) intervention efforts that consider the context of the clients' social relationship networks; and (3) resolution of professional and territorial conflicts.…

Examines a series of hypotheses related to the "gap" between what a community desires of its schools and the school board's response to those desires. (Author/IRT)