State and local report cards help ensure local educational agencies (LEAs), parents, families, educators, and communities have critical data and a common framework for gauging educational progress and success. Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) requires States to annually share this important…

Under both No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act, school leaders have been mandated to employ data-driven decision-making (DDDM) to diagnose student needs, implement targeted supports, and design school improvements. However, district administrators tasked with developing principals' DDDM capacity face a tough road. The authors…

For many districts, evaluation is an afterthought to implementing a new initiative. Educators participate in professional learning experiences, apply what they learn to their practice, and then, at some point, school and district staff begin wondering if the initiative is making a difference. Then they scramble for nuggets of data that provide any…

This mixed method study was a practitioner inquiry into the teacher evaluation system that was enacted as a result of Pennsylvania House Bill 1901 (Act 82 of 2012). The study was an effort to gain an in-depth understanding of (a) factors that led to the passage of the Act 82 teacher evaluation policy, (b) what the policy was intended to do, and…

The four case examples presented in this brief are drawn from the Gardner Center's substantial experience conducting rigorous research in research-practice partnerships. The first case describes a partnership approach that enhances a school district's capacity to use integrated longitudinal data to tackle persistent problems of practice and…

This article discusses the implementation of local level education data-driven planning as implemented by the Office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on the Millennium Development Goals (OSSAP-MDGs) in partnership with The Earth Institute, Columbia University. It focuses on the design and implementation of the…

The United States has experienced tremendous growth in the development of coaching initiatives including professional training programs, state endorsements and resources for coaches. These developments bring attention to the potential for coaching to improve education. They also raise the question of how best to facilitate implementation in local…

Class-size reduction (CSR) has been a complex and contentious issue for the last quarter century. Although the small-class concept was adopted because it appealed to common sense, research over time has revealed a mix of confounding variables, instead of a definitive conclusion. Some CSR efforts, such as Tennessee's Project STAR and Wisconsin's…

A conceptual framework that will increase understanding of the link between educational planning and implementation is presented. The framework is based on three basic components: (1) identifying the problems to be solved, (2) making decisions in choosing among alternative actions, and (3) communicating change inherent in the educational plan. (RM)

Program planning and implementation surveys were completed by 128 teachers of learning disabled students in 42 states. Seven research questions relating to the relationship between teacher or student characteristics and decision behavior were addressed through chi-square analyses or one-way analyses of variance. It was found that the types of…

This report summarizes the proceedings of an Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) sponsored meeting. The discussion and followup papers address issues related to disseminating promising and exemplary programs in conjunction with OERI's responsibilities to plan a system of expert panels. Section 1 of the report includes the minutes…

This paper describes the use of a theory-based framework, the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM), in evaluating the implementation of three educational innovations in the Portland (Oregon) Public Schools during 1986-87: (1) Project READ, a districtwide alternative language arts program for grades 1-8; (2) Timeline, project management software…

This section of the School Environment Handbook can be used by schools to improve school environment and to develop the necessary change strategies. The handbook serves four major purposes. First, the material is designed to facilitate thinking about steps in the planning process. Second, it discusses how to set goals and to state them in ways…

To enhance the relevance and usefulness of social-science research, large-scale research grant-allocation policies are emphasizing, if not requiring, the formation of research partnerships between researchers and members of the community of practice. The emergence of a revisionist conception of traditional dissemination and utilization of…

The four papers presented in this symposium describe the first year and a half of a two-year study designed to examine and increase the linkage between assessment and instruction in classroom decision-making. The first year of the project was devoted to a review of the literature, development of a taxonomy interrelating measurement concepts…