This is the final external evaluation report prepared by SRI International for the Rural Math Excel Partnership (RMEP) project, an investing in innovation (i3) development project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Operated by Virginia Advanced Study Strategies, Inc. (VASS), the RMEP project included six rural school districts (LEAs) in…

This report presents results of a cross-sectional study of achievement and underachievement in middle and high school (grades 6 to 9) African-American students in five mid-Atlantic school districts in 1995. Interviews with 152 African-American students, of whom 44 were identified as gifted, were conducted. Students were asked about their…

The recent demand for schools to respond to external accountability measures challenges school leaders to create school instructional systems that use data to guide the practices of teaching and learning. This paper considers how local school leaders build data-driven instructional systems (DDIS) by developing new programs and using existing…

In response to the accountability movement, schools must develop appropriate data sources and use them for decision making. This paper describes a data-collection and data-analysis procedure that can be used at the school building level. The process uses software for survey administration and data analysis for conducting practical automated…

This paper reports on a field research project designed to provide staff members of one particular Texas middle school the knowledge and ability to affect student attendance. The purpose of the field research was to identify effective strategies, led by site-based management teams, to enhance student attendance. Data were collected from a review…

This study examined the nature of and types of school involvement of parents of children with disabilities from rural school districts in Virginia. Parents (N=52) of elementary and middle school children from three different rural school districts completed a questionnaire containing a Likert type scale and open-ended questions. The data were…

A relatively systemic approach to education reform emerged in the 1990s as one way of addressing policy fragmentation. This volume, the last in a set of three, describes the research design of a study that sought to: (1) expand knowledge of state approaches to systemic education reform; (2) examine district, school, and teacher responses to state…

The Mathematics Assessment Process (MAP) for the Middle Grades gives teachers and school reform leaders new tools to examine and systematically realign mathematics programs. MAP engages an interdisciplinary coalition within a school in an exploration of mathematics instructional excellence. Through an extensive self-study, a school answers the…

The Mathematics Assessment Process (MAP) for the Middle Grades gives teachers and school reform leaders new tools to examine and systematically realign mathematics programs. MAP engages an interdisciplinary coalition within a school in an exploration of mathematics instructional excellence. Through an extensive self-study, a school answers the…

The 4th and 7th grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) scores for the past several years have indicated that the percentage of students meeting the new higher standards is not satisfactory, although improvement is being shown every year. There are indications, however, that while some elementary and middle/junior high schools are…