The "IDRA Newsletter" serves as a vehicle for communication with educators, school board members, decision-makers, parents, and the general public concerning the educational needs of all children across the United States. The focus of this issue is "Opportunity." Contents include: (1) Students Deserve to Read Diverse Books --…

The Nellie Mae Education Foundation created this Student-Centered Learning Continuum (SCL Continuum) to establish the characteristics of high-quality, student-centered learning in classrooms, schools, and districts. This continuum is based upon existing research and cutting-edge practice, incorporates the experiences of experts and practitioners,…

The National Academy of Education (NAEd) undertook this consensus report on the evaluation and improvement of teacher preparation programs (TPPs). Specifically, this consensus report aims to (1) identify and disseminate best practices for evaluating and improving TPPs to promote teacher effectiveness and student achievement; (2) provide…

This guide was created to help district leaders understand the benefits and drawbacks of the four-day school week, assess their district's readiness to make the switch, and evaluate the results of implementing the new schedule. This guide begins with an overview of common goals and outcomes for the four-day school week. It then provides a set of…

This handbook, first published in 2014, aims at helping policy makers and social partners understand some of the ways in which learning in the workplace can be encouraged and how its quality can be improved. It is also intended to help them understand some of the ways that such learning can be organised in a structured manner so that it benefits…

P.S. 52 Sheepshead Bay School in Brooklyn, New York, serves more than 850 students from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. After scores on the 2014 New York State English language arts assessment were unsatisfactory, first-year principal Rafael Alvarez searched for a way to improve academic outcomes for his…

Youth mentoring can be an effective way of supporting troubled youth, helping them sustain positive mental health, cope with stress, and lead successful lives through adolescence and into adulthood. This book is a comprehensive guide to youth mentoring programmes, illustrating how, if managed well, they can increase the social support available to…

Finding time for job-embedded professional learning is one of the most frequently cited challenges with implementing the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). With "Establishing Time for Professional Learning," practitioners and education leaders use tools to identify current allocations of time for professional learning, analyze how that…

This resource conveys policies, procedures, and guidelines that support the delivery of special education services in British Columbia's (Canada) public schools. It was originally published in 1995 (ED414703), following an extensive provincial Special Education Review (1993-94). The purpose of this manual is to provide a single point of reference…

This report investigates a number of education and training programs involving employers in efforts to help disadvantaged young adults attain post-secondary credentials leading to career track employment. For the purposes of this report, the authors define credentials to mean credit and non-credit industry-recognized certifications, associate…

This resource conveys policies, procedures, and guidelines that support the delivery of special education services in British Columbia's (Canada) public schools. It was originally published in 1995 (ED414703), following an extensive provincial Special Education Review (1993-94). The purpose of this manual is to provide a single point of reference…

This article describes the 1st-year evaluation of a community-wide parent and family involvement program initiated in a midsized Southeast community and school district. The program consists of three major components: community-wide efforts, school-home communication, and home involvement. Formative and summative evaluation data were gathered…

This publication is part of a series of tools and resources on financing and sustaining youth programming. These tools and resources are intended to assist policy makers, program developers and community leaders in developing innovative strategies for implementing, financing and sustaining effective programs and policies. This brief highlights six…

Each edition of the IDRA Newsletter strives to provide many different perspectives on the issues in education topics discussed and to define its significance in the state and national dialogue. This issue focuses on Enlightened Public Policy and includes: (1) The Status of School Finance Equity in Texas (Albert Cortez); and (2) Disciplinary…

This evaluation report describes the process by which a large, urban-suburban school system evaluated its vocational education program and the results of the evaluation. The evaluation was built upon a set of broad evaluation questions addressing two components of the vocational-technical program: (1) questions related to employer needs and…