The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological study was to explore and understand the impact of standardized testing on educational practice in an urban, Title I school community, and to determine solutions to improve the utility of standardized testing in supporting student learning and achievement. The specific areas of focus are diagnosing…

Schools are faced with increasing pressures from declining test scores and outcry from the public to improve the educational system. Efforts to reform the system have varied widely and produced inconsistent results. One school took a different approach by embracing the reform efforts through a systematic change process, led by a transformational…

More than half of U.S. children fail to meet proficiency standards in mathematics and science in fourth grade. Teacher professional development and curriculum improvement are two of the primary levers that school leaders and policymakers use to improve children's science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) learning, yet until recently,…

This annual report provides a national perspective on Title II-D for federal fiscal year (FY) 2008 (2008-09 school year), as well as emergent trends based on data from the past seven years. Title II-D is the only federal education program with funds explicitly targeted to support state and local effective uses of educational technology in the …

Two schools in Idaho received ARRA SIG (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act School Improvement Grants) funds to enable them to implement improvement efforts. This paper describes the outcomes of these two ARRA SIG recipient schools: (1) Jefferson Middle School; and (2) Lakeside Elementary School. The experiences of this non-recipient school is…

Each edition of the "IDRA (Intercultural Development Research Association) Newsletter" strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on curriculum quality and includes: (1) Quality Curriculum and School…

As part of a larger project to rethink the federal role in elementary and secondary education, the Center on Education Policy prepared this compendium, which summarizes the findings of major studies of the implementation and effects of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) conducted by various organizations and agencies. The brief summaries are…

There are two schools bearing the name English Avenue: English Avenue Elementary School and English Avenue Primary School. The primary school, which is within the zone boundaries of the elementary school, provided grades kindergarten through 2; the Follow Through Program operated at all three grade levels. After grade two, the pupils of the…

The author describes five common misconceptions concerning the role of education in the alleviation of poverty. Implications for public policy are suggested. (JH)

Describes the accomplishments and shortcomings of educational reform movements from the early 1960s to the present. Concludes with priorities for curricular and instructional reform in urban schools that emphasize cognitive and developmental learning over fragmented and remedial learning. (CJS)

The CREED 4 Project, the fourth of a continuing series, had as its objective the development of activities and materials for the remediation of deficits found in deaf children (ages 4-8 years) with special learning problems and who had been administered the battery of tests developed in CREED 3, designed to assess five critical areas. A sample of…

Describes the new directions, or paradigm shift, that schools must learn to deal with under the 1994 Improving America's Schools Act as subsumed under five headings: (1) standards; (2) focus on teaching and learning with an accelerated curriculum; (3) flexibility for local initiative; (4) links among schools, parents, and communities; and (5)…

The lion's share of funding made available under Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was directed to schools that served large numbers of children from low-income families. In an attempt to quickly upgrade the quality of reading instruction in these schools, specialist teachers were hired to supplement the reading…

The purpose of this report is to present a description of the instructional program, funded in part under Title I of the 1965 Elementary Secondary Education Act, and the findings of the study which assessed pupil performance in reading and mathematics and related estimated costs to pupil performance. The following projects were utilized as…

The Atlanta public schools, Federal and state assistance, and community services provided the following resources for Walden School's instructional program: The Instructional Assistance Program provided a team comprising a lead teacher, a language arts teacher, a social studies teacher, a foreign language teacher, a mathematics teacher, a science…