School grades provide an easily understandable metric to measure the performance of a school. Parents and the general public can use the school grade and its associated components to understand how well each school is serving its students. The purpose of this technical guide is to provide a description of the procedures used to determine school…

Parents want to work with their children's teachers to help them succeed in school. "What Brain Research Says about Student Learning" provides parents and teachers the most recent findings in brain research and learning theory in a very approachable way. The reader will see how the child's brain develops, learns, remembers, and creates…

This White Paper offers a framework for art educators to evaluate the alignment of their assessment methods and goals/objectives for student learning. This effort is an attempt to develop "understandable guidelines" for classroom assessment, specifically attending to the issue of validity. Assessments are valid insofar as they produce…

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 "Family Engagement." Contents include: (1) Solving the Digital Divide Requires…

Testing--as any administrator, teacher, or student will share, there is a lot of it going on in schools. It is not only the formal testing that many parents may remember from their school days. There is now a wide array of different kinds of assessment initiated by states, districts, schools, and classroom teachers. Why all this attention to…

"Autism from the Inside Out" is the first book to focus on providing Irish parents, early childhood, primary, post-primary and special school teachers with effective strategies for supporting children with autism spectrum difference at home and in educational settings. Presenting contributions from a range of national and international…

This report offers seven practical, evidence-based recommendations that are relevant to all pupils, and particularly to those struggling with their literacy. To develop the recommendations, we reviewed the best available international research and consulted experts to arrive at key principles for effective literacy teaching. This second edition of…

This booklet has been developed in hopes that it may aid in keeping communication open and focused between families and schools. Building communication between parents and the school staff through letters offers a way of keeping records of ideas, concerns, and suggestions. This booklet provides general guidelines to writing letters as well as…

Special education, for students ages 3 to 21, is guided by federal and state requirements. The federal requirements are referred to as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The state requirements are referred to as the Ohio Operating Standards for the Education of Children with Disabilities (Ohio Operating Standards). The Ohio…

This guidance report offers early years professionals seven practical evidence-based recommendations to provide every child--but particularly those from disadvantaged homes--with a high quality and well-rounded grounding in early literacy, language and communication. One recommendation focuses on the importance of high quality interactions between…

This report offers seven practical evidence-based recommendations--that are relevant to all pupils, but particularly to those struggling with their literacy. To develop the recommendations we reviewed the best available international research and consulted experts to arrive at key principles for effective literacy teaching. This report is part of…

This booklet has been developed in hopes that it may aid in keeping communication open and focused between families and schools. Building communication between parents and the school staff through letters offers a way of keeping records of ideas, concerns, and suggestions. This booklet provides general guidelines to writing letters as well as…

"Improving Mathematics in the Early Years and Key Stage 1" reviews the best available evidence to offer five recommendations for developing the maths skills of 3-7-year olds. Recommendations include integrating maths into different activities throughout the day -- for example, at registration and snack time -- to familiarise children…

Early childhood education and care (ECEC) -- the phase before primary education -- is increasingly acknowledged as providing the foundations for lifelong learning and development. This second edition of 'Key data on early childhood education and care in Europe' charts the progress made in the key quality areas identified in the Council…

As more states have become engaged in kindergarten assessment efforts, early childhood educators and assessment experts have recommended developing such efforts within a coordinated assessment system that provides data about children's progress over time, (pre-k through grade 12), and is designed to address both educational policy and practice…