On March 9, 2016, two nonprofit organizations -- Digital Promise, committed to accelerating innovation in education, and the Maker Education Initiative (Maker Ed), dedicated to empowering educators to facilitate meaningful learning experiences with youth -- issued a call to action for U.S. school and district leaders to sign the Maker Promise, a…

Playground Physics is a technology-based application and accompanying curriculum designed by New York Hall of Science (NYSCI) to support middle school students' science engagement and learning of force, energy, and motion. The program includes professional development, the Playground Physics app, and a curriculum aligned with New York State…

This research project was a study that was based on a prior dissertation study that analyzed student success, as measured by achievement tests, within local communities with high poverty rates. Two Title 1 Reward high schools in the Phoenix area were examined through qualitative case studies to determine what had been implemented to help eliminate…

This study of advanced readers in Reading First (RF) classrooms was part of a larger evaluation of one state's RF implementation. The study's purposes were to (a) assess the longitudinal growth of advanced primary readers as compared with their non-advanced-reading peers over a 3-year timeframe and (b) determine the degree to which RF classrooms…

In this report, the authors present the results of a national public opinion survey on education news. From December 6 to 19, 2010, they conducted telephone interviews with 1,211 adults aged 18 years or older (including an over-sample of parents) in the continental United States. They asked a series of questions about their education news…

In 2010, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the Kindergarten Readiness Act into law, which changed the kindergarten entry age so that children must turn 5 by September instead of December to enroll. The new grade level was put into place to promote school readiness for California's youngest learners. It also established a new grade…

In 2007, the Pittsburgh Public Schools (PPS) requested that the RAND Corporation monitor implementation of year 2 (2007-2008) of the district's Excellence for All (EFA) initiative and provide feedback to district staff, the PPS board, and other stakeholders. In 2008, RAND expanded to a more comprehensive focus on effective implementation of EFA's…

This study was conducted to determine the status of tracking and ability grouping for mathematics and science courses in the public secondary schools of Virginia as required by the General Assembly of Virginia. Guided by Virginia's standards for accrediting public schools that deal with instructional programs, the study team sought to determine if…

This report traces the growth of high school physics in American school over the past twenty years. Highlights of the report include: (1) Enrollments in high school physics continue to grow; (2) Increase in number and proportion of physics teachers; (3) Number of students taking honors, advance placement or second-year physics course has nearly…

This descriptive, quantitative study examined the effects of participation in a 1-year Early Start Preschool Program for 4-year-olds in a state that requires annual testing at the end of select grades. This study focused primarily on achievement through grade 3. As no study has evaluated the effectiveness of the program, this research examined…

A survey was conducted to determine whether elementary school library media specialists are promoting the integration of multicultural literature into the curriculum. The emphasis was on the use of fiction and easy fiction books with Hispanic, Asian, or American Indian characters and settings. Twenty-five questionnaires were returned (out of 30)…

The study described in this book was designed by the Southwest Regional Laboratory as part of a proposal to create a Metropolitan Center for the Far West Laboratory. The Center would focus on the challenges facing urban educators in its service area. Metropolitan school districts, characterized by high numbers of minority students, successfully…

A survey of University of Tennessee College of Education graduate students (N=353) examined their attitudes toward faculty, curriculum, personal satisfaction, facilities, and administration. Students in all seven departmental groups rated faculty as most satisfactory and administration as least satisfactory. One administration item was rated…

The response of one urban school community to the tension between excellence and equity in public education was to change the structure, curriculum, and educational practices of its ninth-grade English and history courses fundamentally. This report brings together qualitative and quantitative data to document the efforts of a large urban high…

This study examines the relationship between parents' perceptions of certain attributes of their involvement in various aspects of their child's or children's school environment and their child's or children's academic achievement within that school. Parents and children from 132 schools in Louisiana participated in the School Analysis Model 2000…