An innovative system-building initiative known as the STEM Learning Ecosystems Community of Practice (SLECoP) is transforming U.S. STEM education through cross-sector partnerships between schools, afterschool and summer programs, libraries, museums, and businesses, among others. Although logic models exist to describe how SLEs can make positive…

Workforce projections indicate that a majority of jobs to be created in the U.S. economy will require some form of postsecondary education (Cappelli, 2015; Carnevale, Smith, & Strohl, 2010). At the same time, colleges and universities are being held accountable for completion and graduation of their students (The Commission, 2014) and…

The purpose of the study was to design a rigorous experimental study and collect high quality data to determine the effectiveness of the intervention on student achievement. In particular, the authors examined whether diagnostic assessments implemented by schools in Indiana produced rigorous estimates of their effects on student performance on the…

Repeated poor performance by students with special needs on the Indiana Statewide Test of Educational Progress (ISTEP) in an Indiana middle school supported the need for instructional changes. Following the implementation of a full inclusion program, a problem arose in that the program had not been evaluated and effectiveness was in question. This…

This report is part of an overview of the aspirations, methods, and summary results of associational analyses of Indiana assessment data. The study was based on the recognition of policy makers' needs to understand the causes of existing conditions in their schools and to be able to evaluate compound implications of their actions. A survey data…

The development of evaluation criteria for Indiana's three-level system for delivering vocational and technical education (VTE) is described. The comprehensive program covers planning, delivery, and coordination. The coordinating body is the Indiana Commission on Vocational and Technical Education. State-level administering agencies are the…

This year the Center on Education Policy (CEP) analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps…

Since 1988, state governments have been required to collect quarterly from private sector employers gross earnings by Social Security numbers, industry of employment, and county of employment. A study was conducted of 13 states' efforts to use this wage record database as a tool for improving educational accountability and assessing the impact of…

The Educational Opportunity Program for At-Risk Students is a statewide initiative of the State of Indiana to expand existing programs or create new programs for at-risk students. The 57 programs improved or initiated in the 1988-89 school year most commonly included tutoring, counseling and support services, or promotion of parent/community…

A study was done to define the general image of vocational-technical education in Indiana as represented by a statistical sampling of respondents from a variety of categories of the general public, including junior and senior high school students, elementary and secondary teachers and school personnel, parents, and employers. A stratified random…

The evaluation report by Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation (Columbus, Indiana) describes findings concerning what works and what does not work in the Academic Challenge Program, a gifted and talented education program at the elementary and middle school levels. A corollary purpose of the report is to share the evaluation plan itself,…

This comparative study was conducted for the Wisconsin Advisory Council on Vocational Education in an effort to identify strengths and weaknesses of program delivery and accomplishments of several States--Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, and Ohio--with a view towards making recommendations that would improve Wisconsin's total program…