Evaluations of teacher preparation programs (TPPs) based in part on the performance of program completers have emerged as an education reform strategy in several states and have become central features of the Race to the Top (RTTT) grant competition. The objective of this policy review is to examine how the state of Tennessee measured and reported…

Calls for universal preschool programs have become commonplace, reinforced by President Obama's call for "high-quality preschool for all" in 2013. Any program that could cost state and federal taxpayers $50 billion per year warrants a closer look at the evidence on its effectiveness. This report reviews the major evaluations of preschool…

The "Personnel Development Program to Improve Services and Results for Children with Disabilities" is authorized under Section 662 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and is known as the Personnel Development Program (PDP). The PDP is administered by the U.S. Department of Education's (ED's) Office of Special…

From 2004-2007, the University of Memphis carried out the NSF-funded Tri-P-LETS (Three P Learning Environment for Teachers and Students) project to improve local high-school computer science curricula. The project reached a total of 58 classrooms in eleven high schools emphasizing problem solving skills, programming concepts as opposed to syntax,…

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…

Project Upper Cumberland--serving 16 Tennessee counties from July 1, 1967 through September 30, 1970--sponsored a teachers' inservice program emphasizing human relations training, a cultural arts program (grades 1-12), and a guidance and counseling program (grades 1-9). All 3 programs had the general goal of changing and improving attitudes and…

This report evaluates Higher Ground, an ESEA Title I project conducted in and by the metropolitan public schools of Nashville, Tennessee. The project focused on five activity areas: reading improvement programs, kindergarten programs for 5-year-olds, health and nutrition services, outdoor education, and multidisciplinary team intervention.…

This report presents case studies of the three exemplary projects within the Special Emphasis Project, a federally funded national study of how intensive reading programs might change the patterns of elementary school students who read one or more grades below grade level. An introductory section provides information on the history, organization,…

This year the Center on Education Policy 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 between…

Case histories evaluate the effectiveness of recent and current retraining programs for unemployed workers under Federal, state, municipal, and union-management auspices, judging them by their success in placing workers in useful employment in distressed economic areas. Data on various aspects of retraining programs under a wide variety of…

This evaluation attempts to measure the extent and effectiveness of ESEA Title I programs designed to meet the needs of disadvantaged children and apprizes the public and the legislature of program outcomes. In keeping with USOE requirements for evaluating Title I programs, this document is constructed of (1) responses to USOE probes by…

This evaluation attempts to measure the extent and effectiveness of ESEA Title I programs designed to meet the needs of disadvantaged children and apprizes the public and the legislature of program outcomes. In keeping with USOE requirements for evaluating Title I programs, this document is constructed of (1) responses to USOE probes by…

This report describes and assesses the 1993-94 (October 1, 1993 through September 1994) activities of the federally-funded Bilingual Education Multifunctional Resource Center based at the University of Oklahoma and serving a nine-state area (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee).…