The study, "Maximizing Student Agency: Implementing and Measuring Student-Centered Learning Practices," aims to identify the instructional practices that may be useful for the development of different aspects of student agency (i.e., self-efficacy, self-regulated learning, and persistence) and determine whether these instructional…

School superintendents from throughout Colorado were asked to participate in a study by completing a confidential questionnaire regarding their perspectives on an array of issues and concerns related to their professional duties and responsibilities. The survey was developed over several months and included focus groups with superintendents held…

Arts and culture are essential components of a vibrant community. This new report revisits the issue of financial support for the nonprofit arts sector in Boston and compares it to 10 other cities. The 10 comparison cities are: (1) Baltimore; (2) Chicago; (3) Cleveland; (4) Houston; (5) Minneapolis-St. Paul; (6) New York; (7) Philadelphia; (8)…

Using data from a sample of 218 high school youth from three high schools in New England (one rural, two urban), this brief discusses dating and sexual aggression bystander intervention among high school youth. Authors Katie Edwards, Robert Eckstein, and Kara Anne Rodenhizer-Stämpfli report that an overwhelming majority (93.6 percent) of high…

This study evaluates the impact of the Retired Mentors for New Teachers program, a two-year mentoring program at the elementary school level developed by Aurora Public Schools in Colorado. Many of the district's schools serve a large percentage of economically disadvantaged children, experience high teacher turnover, and hire newer, less…

Implementation of multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) has grown rapidly in Kansas and is a key strategy for turning around low-performing schools in the state. MTSS is designed to improve outcomes for all students by instituting system-level change across the classroom, school, district, and state. Such systemic change is accomplished by…

Concerns about the equitable distribution of school funding within and across school districts have led to new federal data collections on school-level expenditures. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) required states to collect and report, for the first time, school-level data on both personnel and non-personnel expenditures…

"The Expanded Success Initiative: Challenges and Progress in the Pursuit of College and Career Readiness for Black and Latino Young Men" synthesizes findings from the Research Alliance's four-year evaluation of Expanded Success Initiative (ESI). This report, draws on hundreds of interviews and focus groups with ESI school leaders,…

A major focus of the booming education technology sector is on products that aim to help teachers improve classroom practice. For their part, districts must figure out which of these resources will be most useful to schools. In New York City, the Department of Education developed its own Achievement Reporting and Innovation System (ARIS), which…

This report, the latest in a series of studies by the Center for an Urban Future examining opportunities to expand economic mobility in New York City, takes an in-depth look at college readiness and success among the city's public high school students. It explores opportunities to dramatically boost the rate at which New York City's students enter…

The Expanded Success Initiative (ESI), focuses on the issue of low college readiness among Black and Latino male students--a problem that has persisted in New York City (NYC) even as high school graduation rates have risen. ESI is providing funding and professional development to 40 NYC high schools, aimed at helping them improve outcomes,…

This brief uses data collected by the Manchester Health Department in 2013 and analyzed by the Carsey School of Public Policy in the Bakersville, Beech Street, and Gossler Park neighborhoods in Manchester, New Hampshire, to provide information about how barriers to various dimensions of well-being differ by place and also across race/ethnicity,…

This report describes the processes undertaken to revise the IDEA Student Ratings of Instruction (SRI) system. The previous revision occurred in 1999, as described in IDEA Technical Report No. 11, "Revising the IDEA System for Obtaining Student Ratings of Instructors and Courses" (Hoyt, Chen, Pallett, & Gross, 1999). The procedures…

This paper offers a summary of key findings from a telephone survey of 1,204 California parents conducted in September and October 2009 in both English and Spanish. The survey was prefaced by four focus groups: in Oakland, San Jose, Fresno and Los Angeles. The survey highlights several important themes for educators and policymakers, the most…

The federal government, states, school districts, and private foundations are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in educational data management systems. The hope for these investments is that providing better information to teachers and administrators, particularly student performance data, will support school-wide planning, inform…