Students' early problem behaviors in school can be disruptive and even hinder their learning and long-term success. To prevent and address these problem behaviors, schools across the country report adopting Multi-Tiered Systems of Support for Behavior (MTSS-B). The MTSS-B approach seeks to change the school learning environment by consistently…

Educator performance evaluation systems are a potential tool for improving student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of the educator workforce. For example, recent research suggests that giving more frequent, specific feedback on classroom practice may lead to improvements in teacher performance and student achievement. This report is…

This Statistics in Brief explores teacher autonomy in the classroom during the 2003-04, 2007-08, and 2011-12 school years. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), the Statistics in Brief examines a construct of teacher autonomy based on teachers' responses to six questions regarding…

Federal initiatives and other research have led states across the nation to sharpen their focus on teacher evaluation in recent years. In 2009 a seminal report, "The Widget Effect," from The New Teacher Project revealed that in districts using a binary rating system to evaluate teachers, less than 1 percent of teachers received an…

"Educators Resource Directory" is designed to provide educators, administrators, and other education professionals with immediate access to a unique combination of educational resources, along with important educational statistics and rankings. "Educators Resource Directory" includes associations, publications, trade shows,…

PIRLS is an international assessment of reading comprehension at the fourth grade that has been conducted every five years since 2001. In 2011, nationally representative samples of students in 49 countries participated in PIRLS and prePIRLS. Forty-five countries assessed fourth grade students, and some countries participated in one or more of the…

This report presents selected findings from the Public School Teacher and Private School Teacher Data Files of the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public and private K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. School districts associated with…

Concerns about the quality of the nation's public education system have drawn attention to key elements of teacher effectiveness (Darling-Hammond 2000; Lewis et al. 1999; Mayer, Mullens, and Moore 2001; National Commission on Teaching and America's Future 1996). While there is little consensus on what constitutes high-quality teachers, past…

As part of Phase 3 of the Universal Preschool Child Outcomes Study (UPCOS-3), Mathematica Policy Research worked with the First 5 LA Children and Families Commission and Los Angeles Universal Preschool (LAUP) to conduct a descriptive study of the characteristics of classrooms in LAUP programs during winter 2010. This study has a particular focus…

Prompted by widely held concerns about middle schools' academic rigor and the effectiveness of activities designed to help early adolescents develop in non-academic realms, many middle school educators have renewed efforts to develop curricula and instructional strategies that challenge students academically and expand their intellectual…

This report presents estimates of the proportion of teachers who use a wide range of teaching practices, including those frequently recommended in curriculum and teaching standards and those that have traditionally been part of teachers' practice. The report analyzes data from the 1994-95 Teacher Follow-up Survey, which administered a series of…

This report examines differences between full-day and half-day kindergarten across the United States using ECLS-K data from schools, teachers, parents and kindergarten children. Described, are the schools, both public and private, that offer these programs and the children who attend them. The report further describes many characteristics of…

Problems involved in reducing the achievement gap among ethnic groups in the Seattle (Washington) public schools were studied. An 11-member team selected 25 elementary schools and 216 classrooms for the study, which included classroom observations, teacher questionnaires, and measurement of ethnic achievement gap reduction through California…