This case study describes the use of a regression discontinuity design and a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the impact of School Improvement Grants on high school students' reading, mathematics, and science achievement. The high schools that participated in the School Improvement Grant program were very low performing and received…

Part I summarizes key topics of federal education policy articulating accountability requirements for state education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs, or school districts). In that section we describe major goals of the legislation and which components are the same or changed in the federal law. The findings are grouped into…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is a targeted programme that uses a tiered approach to identify the needs of low achieving pupils. The approach begins with whole class teaching (Tier 1), followed by small group tuition (Tier 2) for those who need more attention, and one to one tutoring (Tier 3) for those who do not respond to the small group…

Most K-12 evaluations are designed to make inferences about how a program implemented at the classroom or school level affects student learning outcomes and such inferences inherently involve hierarchical data structure. One methodological challenge for evaluators is linking program implementation factors typically measured at the classroom or…

The PD program evaluated in this study is designed to address the problem of low student achievement in topics in rational numbers. The study focuses on seventh grade, the culminating year for teaching those topics. The study randomly assigned 77 mid- and high-poverty schools from 12 districts to treatment and control conditions and collected…

This paper will describe results concerning the impact of the PD on the three primary study outcomes: teacher knowledge of rational number topics, teacher instructional practices, and student achievement in rational number topics. All analyses are completed. However, the results cannot be shared at this time because the report is currently under…

This is the first volume of a report describing the results of a three-year evaluation study of the Right to Read Special Emphasis Project, which was undertaken to determine if intensive programs of reading instruction introduced at an early age could change patterns of reading achievement in schools where large numbers of students read one or…

Rigorous research provides information that will allow other schools and districts to select interventions that have a scientifically based track record of effectiveness. All Striving Reader grants include the mandate to evaluate literacy intervention(s) targeted to adolescents who are reading significantly below grade level. Although all studies…

In recent years, providsion of early learning experiences to children has found a place on political agendas nationwide. Increasingly, early childhood education is viewed as a point of leverage for addressing low levels of, and gaps in, K-12 achievement. This article discusses what people know about the quality of existing early-childhood…

Commonality analysis was used as part of an evaluation of the Preparation through Responsive Educational Programs (PREP), a project based on behavior modification for disruptive, poorly achieving, and potentially delinquent urban junior high school students. The objectives of this study were to understand how the program affected certain academic…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has the potential to improve many of America's schools, but this potential is currently undermined by serious flaws in how the program evaluates school performance. Because NCLB's measurement system compares only students' performance at a single point in time against state-determined standards, the information…

In 1995 the Rowland Unified School District (California) developed a new mission statement defining core values for the district's preparation for the 21st century. The district then set about implementing a new accountability system with existing measures to establish baseline data for measuring progress toward the new goals. The focus in this…

In this tenth annual report on federally-funded education programs, the authors give an overview of evaluation activities in the new Department of Education and describe changes in the department's techniques and uses of evaluation. The first chapter discusses the role of evaluation in ensuring that federal funds for education are spent…

To investigate the assertion that there is a tendency for teachers to emphasize skills already mastered by their students, data were collected on 488 seventh grade mathematics students in three junior high schools. Of these, 285 were assigned to experimental classes taking the curriculum under development and 203 were assigned to comparison…

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…