Background: Low physical fitness (PF) levels during childhood affect healthy growth and development, and increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Physical education standards exist for nearly all states in the United States, but evaluation of PF in youth has yet to be systematic, reproducible, and harmonized. The purpose of this project was…

As states consider non-academic measures of school quality for their accountability plans under the Every Student Succeeds Act, few are choosing to focus on the school climate in which students learn. That's not a surprise, given concerns about the validity and usefulness of existing climate surveys. However, the authors argue, a recent study…

When COVID-19 forced a hiatus in federally mandated assessments in spring 2020, it interrupted a quarter century of effort to track, disaggregate, and publicize achievement levels at the school level. The aborted school year put a big data gap where 2020 scores should have been. Combined with the already raging assaults on testing, state education…

Designed for middle school grades, the National Geographic Geo-Inquiry Process engages students in geographic inquiry that begins with formulating a question that addresses an issue in the local community and ends with taking informed action to advocate for a specific, concrete solution. This research employs a pretest and post-test in classrooms…

This article explores ways to improve the use and usefulness of four large and independently developed U.S. Education Department (ED) school-based data collections: the annual EDFacts' student outcomes on state assessments and high school graduation rates; the annual Common Core of Data's student and teacher counts and district and state finances;…

Over the past two decades, college and career readiness became a priority in K-12 education. While graduation rates have been rising, far too many high school graduates are not ready to succeed in college or a job. Employers note that freshly-minted employees too often need additional training to perform their roles, many are ineligible for…

This correlation study examined relationships between special education and standardized testing variables of 100 Arizona secondary school districts with Native American populations, and the archival records for postsecondary outcomes between 2012 and 2014 of students with disabilities, using archival data collected by the Arizona Department of…

As a continuum of professional learning for building and district leaders transitioning from leadership preparation programs into practice, the state of Kansas enacted mentoring and induction requirements as part of their role in supporting development of leadership skills important to on-the-job application of essential knowledge. One approved…

While many teachers continue to ignore the practice of assessing student achievement in physical education, recent federal pressures to include student assessment data in teacher evaluation systems has shown that assessment of student outcomes is here to stay. Though there is a strong tradition of assessing teacher practice in physical education,…

Indicator 14: Post-School Outcomes are assessed each year by every school district in every state to evaluate outcomes for all students with disabilities, including learning disabilities, beyond secondary school. Data collection is mandated to focus on post-secondary education and employment status just after leaving school-age programs. Some…

Writing instruction is central to the implementation of the Common Core State Standards. It is embedded across all curricula. Under the Common Core guidelines, students must produce writing that includes not only narrative and literary responses as part of the language arts curriculum but also argumentative and informative/explanatory texts in…

Several sectors and levels of organizations, agencies, and projects are involved in promoting and providing education, care, and intervention services for young children and their families in Illinois. State government entities involved in matters of early care and education include the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the Department of…

With many states adopting new standards and evaluation systems, teachers must adopt effective instructional strategies and assessment methods aligned to the rigor of new standards and assessments. One way to improve student achievement is through supporting student ownership of learning, a core component of formative instructional practices.…

This study compared the underlying factors measured by a state standards-based grade 4 English-Language Arts (ELA) assessment given to several groups of students. The focus of the research was to gather evidence regarding whether or not the tests measured the same construct or constructs for students without disabilities who took the test under…

Improving student performance for high-need student populations by improving the use of data in decision-making for early reading intervention programs in northwest Florida is the focus of this research to practice effort. The study is conceptually based on using a relational-feedback intervention (RFI) database model in early learning…