Improving the educational outcomes of economically disadvantaged children is a policy priority in the United States, and yet relatively little progress has been made in recent decades. Education reforms that aim to help economically disadvantaged students often focus on improving the quality with which grade-level material is taught, or the…

Cost studies are program evaluations that judge program worth by relating program costs to program benefits. There are three sets of strategies: cost-benefit, cost-effectiveness, and cost-utility analysis, although the last appears infrequently. The authors searched relevant databases to identify 103 cost studies in education and then reduced the…

Recent Title I regulations have allowed local school districts to use Title I funds to establish schoolwide projects to upgrade the educational program for the entire school, not just for targeted students. Austin, Texas, used Title I and local funds to establish two schoolwide projects where pullout programs were ended and the pupil/teacher ratio…

Review of cost-effectiveness studies suggests that rapid assessment is more cost effective with regard to student achievement than comprehensive school reform (CSR), cross-age tutoring, computer-assisted instruction, a longer school day, increases in teacher education, teacher experience or teacher salaries, summer school, more rigorous math…

Many students are capable of reading a chapter, doing the end-of-chapter questions, studying a little bit, and passing the chapter test. Many teachers are in the habit of using a textbook as a crutch to fall back on when creativity is lacking. Others are capable of teaching incredibly creative lessons based on state standards but are bound by the…

After more than a decade (and four years behind schedule) Congress finally seems ready to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. For years, critics have complained that the law's focus on test scores offers far too narrow a picture for judging school quality. There is also concern that the "adequate yearly progress," or…

Louisiana has emerged as one of the most fascinating states in the nation for education reform. The state's creative response to rebuilding the New Orleans education system in the wake of Hurricane Katrina is now considered a potential model for reformers across the nation. Governor Bobby Jindal has carried the reforms further in pushing for…

Describes ways the principal can use the resources on hand more effectively to enhance student learning. (Author/JM)

The project's purpose was to implement a vocational curriculum evaluation model developed by the Metropolitan Community College (MCC) District. The model was formatively field tested with ten MCC vocational programs and implemented in the evaluation of twenty-four vocational programs. The model's criteria was based on the program's (1)…

The School Improvement Model project, a total systems approach to evaluating and improving instruction, will be fully implemented by 1983-84. The project includes four components: teacher performance evaluation, administrator performance evaluation, student achievement measurement, and staff development. Five school districts in Minnesota and Iowa…

This report summarizes the management support activities of Education Turnkey Systems, Inc. for the O.E.O. Performance Incentive Remedial Education Experiment. Included are sections on the implementation, the monitoring, and the implications of this experiment that tested performance contracting as a technique of instruction in public school…

A cost-effectiveness analysis was conducted of Gordon, Kane, and Staiger's (2006) proposal to raise student achievement by identifying and replacing the bottom quartile of novice teachers, using value-added assessment of teacher performance. The cost effectiveness of this proposal was compared to the cost effectiveness of voucher programs, charter…