As U.S. school leaders anticipate the end of Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds and contemplate possible budget shortfalls, they will have to make hard choices about how best to leverage limited resources to improve student outcomes. With the stakes high, lawmakers and experts urge school system leaders to rely on research and…

Underserved schools often have fewer resources and less capacity to rigorously implement improvement strategies. As a result, the districts and schools that most need support programs are often least likely to adopt and implement them successfully--a phenomenon that we call the "needs paradox." To address the needs paradox, we created…

Teachers want all students to succeed. As physical educators, the goal is to create physically literate students. However, what does a physical educator do when regular differentiation techniques are not enough to provide success for each student? This article provides a description of how one elementary school met the needs of low-performing…

In light of an international policy movement to increase focus on students' academic achievement, the question of how to improve schools has become an important issue at all levels in the school system. Substantial resources have been invested in reforms to improve conditions for pupils' learning. Great expectations and responsibility are often…

This article suggests that many of the 16-year-olds who don't achieve a C or better in GCSE English may have had parents who didn't recognise the value of talking to them from the moment they were born. It argues that a bringing together of health visitors, Sure Start centres and primary schools could help lift many children out of the cultural…

Sophia Graff, a beginning algebra teacher at Valencia College in Orlando, had an idea. The state of Florida had instituted a mandatory competency test that students needed to pass to enter intermediate algebra, but only a third of her students were succeeding. As part of an action-research project that was required for all professors seeking…

Throughout American education, black boys and men, on the whole, have struggled for years. They graduate from high school and attend and complete college at disproportionately low rates. The overall college performance of black men is so poor that some college officials and advocates for black students are reluctant to even talk about the problem,…

The purpose of this guide is to help chronically struggling schools restructure. "Restructuring" means major, rapid changes that affect how a school is led and how instruction is delivered. Restructuring is essential in achieving rapid improvements in student learning. The focus is on helping education leaders choose strategies that…

In recent years, the development of mentoring schemes designed to support young people deemed as being at risk, both socially and in respect of educational underachievement has become a common strategy deployed by Local Authorities. The majority of these schemes have been school based or managed within the formal systems of other agencies such as…

With increasing attention focused on comprehension, there is a need for research regarding how to implement comprehension instruction for struggling readers and assess its effectiveness. This article describes reading instruction as it occurred over two years with one struggling reader in third and fourth grade. A comprehension checklist provided…

School improvement initiatives are needed to better meet the needs of underprivileged students, to reduce underachievement and to break a continuing cycle of disadvantage. This article describes part of a school improvement initiative in New Zealand that provided additional funding for school nurse and social worker services in nine secondary…

This paper is one in a series of four describing a boy-oriented program for elementary school children. It describes a "boy-oriented" classroom, playground, and extracurricular activities; a staff-development program; and development of a "boy-oriented" program package for dissemination purposes. It presents an evaluation of the program showing…

This report describes five state systems of support in low-performing schools. Discussion of each state system includes a description of the accountability system, the process for identifying low-performing schools, funding resources available, the technical assistance provided, the provider of that assistance, and the resources used to support…

Evaluates an approach that supplemented existing Reading Recovery programs with small-group, early literacy instruction in 28 Arkansas public schools. The program enabled many children to receive timely support. When space became available in Reading Recovery, these children made accelerated progress and were discontinued earlier than children who…

Concern over low student achievement led to creation of a community-based Maryland mentoring program for at-risk African-American students. Mentoring was successfully used for teaching and coaching, strengthening racial harmony, promoting social change, ensuring equal education, and creating opportunities for personal empowerment. By portraying…