The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the extent to which instructional leaders providing principal feedback to teachers with five or more years of teaching experience influence student high value-added growth in urban Ohio middle schools, specifically in regard to their Black students. It examined statistical information between…

According to National Assessment of Educational Progress data trends spanning the past two decades, student achievement in writing falls below other subjects tested across grade levels. To be prepared for college and the professional workforce, students need to be proficient writers. However, writing is a neglected subject in elementary school.…

Region 14 Comprehensive Center and the Texas Education Agency (TEA) are collaboratively implementing projects to address high leverage problems such as instructional leadership professional development, school-based mental health supports, and evidence-based reading instruction. This profile provides a summary of these selected projects and an…

Anecdotal evidence points to the importance of school principals, but the limited existing research has neither provided consistent results nor indicated any set of essential characteristics of effective principals. This paper exploits extensive student-level panel data across six states to investigate both variations in principal performance and…

By aligning factors that most commonly influence the achievement of Black and Hispanic students with the type of resources inside the black box of schooling, this study differentiated the achievement effect of school resources from what was brought by students to schools. The hierarchical regression results showed that minority students'…

Situated in the context of U.S. educational outcomes, education policy in California, and UNESCO's definition of inclusive education, we examine how schools have addressed student diversity. Methods of identifying students with disabilities are not adequately designed to identify English learners with disabilities. In part to address that problem,…

Our district reading data at the secondary level has remained stagnant over the last decade with respect to grade-level reading ability. We knew we wanted to find a way to engage students in reading and strengthen their literacy skills. In response to this, we sought to examine if we were hindering literacy development through our instructional…

By 2030, most jobs will require some training beyond high school (a four-year degree, a two-year associate degree, or some type of industry credential). Too few Texas students are currently obtaining the necessary postsecondary credentials. In response to this challenge, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board established the 60x30TX Plan in…

Common sense and recent research make it clear that schools cannot be successful without strong principals. Strong principals help improve student performance in many ways, from shaping a school's mission and culture to hiring, developing, and retaining its teachers. Even so, principals often get short shrift in today's debates about human capital…

Based on current research, many students in the middle grades (6-8) have not performed at their highest academic levels. In 2011, more than one-half of eighth graders in 16 Southern states scored basic or below basic on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Alternatively, effective principal-leaders strategically demonstrated…

The 2016 edition of the Brown Center Report (BCR) is number five in the third volume and the 15th issue overall. As is customary, this year's BCR contains three studies. Part one is on the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and instruction in math and reading. National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data indicate that nonfiction is…

In one of the first large-scale analyses of urban trends on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the Council of the Great City Schools and the American Institutes for Research identified urban school systems that demonstrated high achievement or significant achievement gains on the NAEP, and examined possible factors behind…

As an organization made up of Michiganders, we know well how our parents once prided themselves on the quality of our state's public schools. Sadly, we have little to be proud of today. Our state's educational performance is lackluster by practically any reliable measure. In this report, we lay out a common-sense agenda to raise Michigan's…

The Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD), asked the Council of the Great City Schools to review the district's services for students with disabilities and provide recommendations to improve performance and narrow the achievement gap between these students and their nondisabled peers. This report was designed to help SCUSD achieve its…

Throughout the past two decades, Boston Public Schools has seen strong, steady improvement, recently demonstrated through student gains on NAEP's Trial Urban District Assessment in math and recognized through the award of the 2006 Broad Prize for Urban Education. Teacher leaders have played an important role in Boston's improvement. As team…