This dissertation contributes to the discussion of what contributes to school district rankings in the state of Ohio. It uses Latent Profile Analysis to explore different variables at the contextual and district level as they correspond to Ohio's Performance Index academic measure and Value-Added academic measure. Results show that contextual…

Students, teachers, and school leaders are seeking flexibility and supports to enable powerful, personalized learning experiences both inside and outside of the traditional classroom. In personalized learning, instruction is tailored to each student's strengths, needs, and interests--including enabling student voice and choice in what, how, when,…

The Center on Standards, Alignment, Instruction, and Learning (C-SAIL), examines through four lines of study to determine how college- and career-readiness (CCR) standards are implemented, if they improve student learning, and what instructional tools measure and support their implementation. This brief presents findings from C-SAIL's…

The U.S. Department of Education (Education) established the Race to the Top (RTT) grant fund to encourage states to support school reform efforts. In 2010, Education awarded 12 RTT grants totaling nearly $4 billion, making RTT the largest competitive grant fund ever administered by Education. Individual grantee awards ranged from $75 million to…

Determining what constitutes good writing is difficult, though many say they know it when they see it. Although this approach may have support in the literature, there are other efficient and valid ways to assess students' writing. To obtain a complete picture of a student's writing skills, it is important that teachers take a balanced approach to…

Since the passage of the first Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965, increasing reading achievement for all students has been a focus for our nation. Unfortunately, our country still has over 30 million citizens who are illiterate (Mukherjee, 2007). One of the challenges for schools is to accurately identify students in need of early…

Digital learning makes possible the "unbundling" of school provisions--that is, it allows children to be served by providers from almost anywhere, in new and more customized ways. At the same time, because it destandardizes and decentralizes educational delivery, digital education is far harder to bring under the yoke of the…

In the late 1990s, teachers in five pilot districts in Ohio were trained during the Baldrige in Education Initiative (BiE IN). Training included Baldrige's theory, quality process and quality tools. The study was a follow-up to determine the effect of the use of the Ohio Baldrige Initiative training in the pilot districts (and other early…

A promising new teacher self-efficacy instrument, the Ohio State Teacher Efficacy Scale (OSTES) (M. Tschannen-Moran and A. WoolfolkHoy, in press) was critically evaluated regarding its development and submitted to confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Participants were 183 inservice teachers in Texas and Washington, DC, most of whom taught primary…

This study examined processes and techniques teachers used to ensure that their assessments were valid and reliable, noting the extent to which they engaged in these processes. A sample of 625 elementary and secondary teachers received mailed copies of the Ohio Teacher Assessment Practices Survey, which asked about steps that they followed and the…

This article is written by three faculty mentors involved in Transforming Education through the Arts (TETAC), a 5-year effort to help reform five public schools in Ohio by integrating the arts into the curriculum. In this article, the authors discuss how art education can play a significant role in the PK-12 curriculum; create more demanding…

Science test results are often used to evaluate differences in achievement between males and females. Analyzes data collected in Ohio at the statewide level and suggests that it could be important to consider the rate of item omission before scores are computed. Contains 17 references. (DDR)

As the United States stands on the brink of a new era in American history with new leaders, fresh ideas, and a strong feeling of optimism for the future, everyone has an important opportunity to get the nation's education policy right. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD) recommends that as policymakers reshape the…

As part of a continuing assessment of educational needs in a seven-state region, researchers conducted a verification study to check the validity of educational needs first identified in fiscal year (FY) 1980. The seven states comprise Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This report describes assessment…

A study involving 80 Ohio schools employing Intervention-Based Assessment (IBA) found that IBA was favored over Intervention Assistance Teams in the proportion of children on team caseloads who underwent multifactored evaluation and were found eligible for special education, but not for the proportion of children who received intervention in…