Purpose: Writing is an essential skill that secondary students need to establish for success in their further education, careers, and lives. However, most secondary students in the United States do not achieve the level of writing proficiency expected to ensure academic and future success. One approach that is emerging more in the research…

The "Forum Guide to Metadata" presents and examines the ways in which metadata can be used by education agencies to improve data quality and promote a better understanding of education data. Supported by metadata-related case studies from state and local education agencies, the guide highlights the uses of metadata from a technical point…

This book provides a comprehensive introduction by an extraordinary range of experts to the recent and rapidly developing field of learning analytics. Some of the finest current thinkers about ways to interpret and benefit from the increasing amount of evidence from learners' experiences have taken time to explain their methods, describe examples,…

Using data strategically to guide decisions and actions can have a positive effect on education practices and processes. This facilitation guide shows education data teams how to move beyond simply reporting data to applying data to direct strategic action. Using guiding questions, suggested activities, and activity forms, this guide provides…

This book demonstrates the many ways classroom walkthroughs can be used for continuous, systemic, long-range school improvement. Woven throughout the book are 18 different models of walkthroughs that have been successfully implemented in schools across the country. An effective tool for improving teaching and learning, this book demonstrates that…

The word "data" connotes math, science, and technology: digits and quantifiable units. Data imply objectification--reducing ideas, and perhaps even students and teachers, to products that can be measured and compared. Ironically, however, this conception of data is itself reductive, and it minimizes the richness and potential of data.…

"The NMC Horizon Report" series is the most visible outcome of the New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon Project, an ongoing research effort established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within education around the globe. This…

"The NMC Horizon Report" series is the most visible outcome of the New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon Project, an ongoing research effort established in 2002 that identifies and describes emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, research, or creative expression within every sector of education in some 65…

This book is a straightforward, no-nonsense guide to a research method that can be used by educators to increase student learning, student self-esteem, and quality of school life in the classroom. This user-friendly book covers the principles and history of action research, ethical and legal considerations, methods for conducting both formal and…

In this research, commissioned by the New Zealand Teachers Council, the quality of induction of provisionally registered teachers (PRT) (newly qualified) was examined utilising qualitative "success case studies" within early childhood, primary, secondary, and indigenous Mori medium settings. The establishment of criteria for effective…

This document is intended to serve as a practical guide for implementing a teacher-student data link (TSDL) that supports a range of uses at the local, regional, and state levels. The guide addresses the considerations for linking teacher and student data from multiple perspectives, including governance, policies, data components, business rules,…

For decades a substantial body of research on teacher reflection and action has been conducted. This research contains a wealth of information on teachers' thinking about their daily work in classrooms. But what do these studies tell us about the linkage between thought and action in actual teaching? How do they contribute to our understanding, or…

The high school dropout problem has been called a national crisis. Educators, researchers, and policymakers continue to work to identify effective dropout prevention approaches. One important element of such prevention efforts is the identification of students at highest risk for dropping out and then the targeting of resources to keep them in…

This handbook is a roadmap for action research facilitators to help groups as they work through the research process. It offers quotations, handouts, strategies, resources, and insights from actual experiences. The sections of the handbook follow the action research cycle, focusing on: "What is Action Research?"; "What is the Action…

This book offers an introduction for teachers, students, and other educational practitioners to the techniques that transform informal observation into a recognized research tool. It is intended for those with little or no experience with formal observation. Four chapters focus on: (1) "Observation as a Data-Gathering Technique" (how observation…