The Shelby County iZone is a district-led effort to dramatically improve, or "turn around," 23 of the lowest performing schools in Tennessee in the 15th largest district in the country. Despite circumstances that have derailed many past reforms, iZone schools have made statistically significant and educationally meaningful gains in…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of standards-based grading (SBG) on student achievement at Lipscomb Academy, a private, faith-based school in Middle Tennessee. In this mixed-methods study the researchers utilized test score data from middle school math and language arts midterms, AP Psychology Exam scores, digital…

The last year has found critics and advocates of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) duking it out in the political arena. The Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an ardent supporter of high standards for some seventeen years, has recently lurched out of the safe haven of think tankery and into the boxing ring. Yet wherever one stands on the merits of…

This report presents a multi-year study of how states are implementing their state college- and career-readiness standards. In this report, the Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) Benchmarking State Implementation of College- and Career-Readiness Standards project studied state efforts in 2014-15 and 2015-16 to foster effective…

By 2013, all 50 states and the District of Columbia had adopted college- and career-ready standards in English language arts and mathematics, placing a greater emphasis on argument writing to prepare students for life after high school. Solving the specific problem of how to help teachers teach to new standards for argument writing as well as the…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are supporting local educators in classroom implementation of the Common Core by providing and/or facilitating the development of instructional resources and materials aligned to the new standards. In order for instructional resources and materials to be aligned to the Common…

The following profiles address how the state departments of education are helping educators prepare for and implement the Common Core and aligned assessments through professional learning. The major professional development efforts around the Common Core were examined in order to understand the overall efforts of each state. An exhaustive list of…

The Literacy Design Collaborative (LDC) and the Mathematics Design Collaborative (MDC) are strategies designed to improve how teachers teach and students learn. The designs encourage teacher collaboration and creativity and offer flexible frameworks for building lessons in all disciplines. Their purpose is to engage students to read challenging…

By 2012, all of the states in this study had started implementing new or revised teacher and leader evaluation systems. There are many and varying updates to these systems, and some of them have been made to meet conditions for a state's federal "Race to the Top" (RTT) grant. Other updates have been made to meet conditions for a state's…

All of the 15 states in this study have recently been involved in school accountability system reform. Since 2011, the states have taken advantage of a federal program to give them flexibility around certain accountability requirements of the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001 (NCLB), the most recent reauthorization of the Elementary and…

STEM--shorthand for "science, technology, engineering, and mathematics"--has been part of the school improvement discussion for more than a decade, as educational leaders and policy makers have underscored the importance of these areas in an internationally competitive, 21st-century economy. But building and implementing programs that…

By 2012, all of the states in this study had started implementing new or revised teacher and leader evaluation systems. The systems include many and varying updates. In some cases, the updates were designed to meet conditions for a state's "Race to the Top" grant. In others, the updates were made to meet conditions for a state's waiver…

STEM--the catchy shorthand for "science, technology, engineering and mathematics"--has been part of the school improvement discussion for more than a decade, as educational leaders and policy makers have underscored the importance of these areas in preparing students for an internationally competitive, 21st-century economy. But while the…

The following profiles address the basic decisions and actions that state education policy-makers--in the state departments of education, unless otherwise noted--are taking to foster successful statewide implementation of the new standards and aligned assessments in 15 states. These profiles provide a descriptive overview of each state's…

Implementation of college- and career-readiness standards is some of the most important work currently underway in states to improve public education and student achievement. This report provides a summary of findings from SREB's research into the efforts of 15 states--12 in the Southern Educational Research Board (SREB) region--to support…