This research study evaluated the effects of the Comprehensive Supports and Improvement (CSI) program on the performance of fifty-six participating schools after one year of school improvement technical assistance. Specifically, it investigated whether the geographic locations of schools, the percentage of inexperienced teachers, and school…

The state of Texas requires that each district and campus write an annual improvement plan (Texas Education Code, n.d.b). Although this study was conducted in Texas concerning Texas districts and campuses, it would be reasonable to assume that most, if not all, of the other states in the U.S. have similar improvement planning processes. The…

This study examines the efficacy of the Japanese version of the Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills (PEERS), which focuses on improving social functioning through making friends and maintaining good relationships for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) without intellectual disabilities. Originally developed in…

This article introduces an Australian adaptation of an approach to supporting school leadership and improvement pioneered by educationalists David Townsend and Pam Adams, from Alberta, Canada. Referred to as the North Coast Initiative for School Improvement, the adaptation involved school leaders, academics, and government officials who combined…

Licensed family child care (FCC) programs serve millions of children and families annually and tend to serve more vulnerable families than center-based programs. Low-income families, families needing infant and toddler care, and families that are Hispanic or African American are more likely to place their children in FCC programs than in…

The education sector is embracing the hope that continuous improvement will lead to more beneficial student outcomes than standards-based reform and other approaches to policies and practice in prior decades. This report examines attempts in California to realize the potential of continuous improvement in some of the state's largest districts.…

This study was designed to investigate the applicability of the IES/NSF pipeline-of-evidence protocol in ascertaining why two notable educational initiatives spearheaded and financially supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation achieved or not the goal of improved academic outcomes for K-12 public school students. Our interest was not…

The purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate the impact of CORE District's Breakthrough Success Community (BTSC) Program at an urban Title I high school located in Southern California. BTSC aims to improve the ninth-grade experience through a focus on five key change drivers and the implementation of improvement science. Through teacher…

Children in two communities of a large city in the Midwestern United States have higher rates of asthma than other areas of the city. The communities have barriers to accessing care, including high rates of unemployment and being uninsured and undocumented. A mobile van provides no-cost asthma care to children at schools in these communities, but…

How should teachers spend their STEM-focused professional learning time? To answer this question, we analyzed a recent wave of rigorous new studies of STEM instructional improvement programs. We found that programs work best when focused on building knowledge teachers can use during instruction: knowledge of the curriculum materials they will use,…

There are national, state, and institutional efforts to increase the completion rates of students enrolled in higher education institutions across the United States. This manuscript describes how one community college developed a total institutional commitment approach that became very successful in terms of significant Associate Degree and…

Since its inception, NASA's Science Activation program has demonstrated considerable success in leveraging the agency's strong public reputation and resources to engage a diversity of audiences in science education projects nationwide. As the program nears the end of this second five-year funding cycle, NASA tasked the National Academies with…

This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Organizing for Learning Improvement: What It Takes (Andrea M. Pope and Keston H. Fulcher); (2) Editor's Notes: The Leadership Imperatives for Assessment Excellence -- Imperative #2, Attracting and Retaining Talent to Support Assessment Excellence (Stephen P. Hundley);…

The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the RTI process and its impact on student achievement. Data analysis will be used to identify areas of strength and weakness in the current system and provide insights into how to create a more effective RTI program. The findings from this study will be used to inform future…

Global access to preschool has increased dramatically yet preschool quality is often poor. We use a randomized controlled trial to evaluate two approaches to improving the quality of Colombian preschools. We find that the first, which was rolled out nationwide and provides additional resources for materials and new staff, did not benefit…