After more than a decade (and four years behind schedule) Congress finally seems ready to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. For years, critics have complained that the law's focus on test scores offers far too narrow a picture for judging school quality. There is also concern that the "adequate yearly progress," or…

Only recently have school districts across the nation begun to offer Algebra I to all eighth grade students. Currently, most eighth grade Algebra I curriculum does not have a national consistent focus of topics or level of rigor. A key issue of implementing Algebra I in eighth grade is defining national Algebra I concepts and skills that students…

As the demands for public accountability increase for the higher education industry, institutions are seeking methods for continuous improvement in order to demonstrate quality within programs and processes, including those provided through online education. Because of the rapid growth of online education programs, institutions are further called…

Dropping out of school is associated with a wide array of negative outcomes and the extraordinarily high United States dropout rate has brought the issue to the forefront of American education. This study investigated normally collected middle school data from a suburban Colorado school district to determine the predictive value toward students…

The Part B-619 and Part C Programs under the "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act" (IDEA) provide preschool special education and early intervention services, respectively, to children with disabilities birth through age 5. Recent requirements in IDEA require states to monitor the implementation of these programs through a series…

This paper estimates vocational education and training (VET) course-completion rates, in order to fill a gap in performance measures for the VET sector. The technique the authors use is to track all VET course enrolments within a three-year window, centred on the year of interest. Then, using an absorbing Markov chain model for a VET course…

Leaders in schools, districts, and states, along with policymakers in Washington, D.C., are focusing new energy on closing long-standing gaps in performance that separate low-income students and students of color from others. It's critically important that their efforts succeed--for students, their families, their communities, and for their…

This policy brief focuses on the School District of Philadelphia's high school selection process and the ways in which it reinforces and compounds inequities that already exist among the District's tiered system of selective, non-selective, and charter high schools. Focused in particular on the impact that these policies have on non-selective…

The purpose of this study is to explore aspects and indicators most commonly used to assess the quality of education systems in different countries through the comparison of 12 national publications describing the state of the educational system. To compare indicators the CIPP model was chosen. This model is organized in four main parts: Context,…

The following analysis was done to investigate the findings of the Correlational Relationship (R) between the Bar Passing Rates and GPAs of the Years 2005-2009. This report of findings was done to see if there are any significant relationships between the three variables (Bar Pass/Fail/Unknown, Overall GPA, and Bar GPA). The following procedures…

The following report gives descriptive and correlational statistical findings of the Grade Point Averages (GPAs) of the February 2010 and July 2009 TMSL First Time Texas Bar Test Takers to their TMSL Final GPA. Data was pre-existing and was given to the Evaluator by email from the Dean and Registrar. Statistical analyses were run using SPSS 17 to…

Individuals need communicative competence for personal fulfillment and development, active citizenship, social inclusion and employment. However, the success of communicative competence within a multicultural environment requires that a system of criteria, indicators and levels of forming communicative competence have to be considered. Aim of the…

[Slides] presented at AERA in Denver, CO in April 2010. In today's education climate, an enormous amount of pressure has been placed on states, school districts, and programs to produce graduates who are prepared to successfully enter, persist through, and graduate from the nation's universities and colleges. However, much of this research has…

Purpose: This paper aims to reflect on the relevance of the Institutional Evaluation Programme (IEP) of the European University Association (EUA) to universities' quality improvement. It aims to analyse IEP follow-up reports to determine whether the programme contributes to the development of a quality improvement culture.…

Never before have Americans had greater access to information about school quality. Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), all school districts are required to distribute annual report cards detailing student achievement levels at each of their schools. Local newspapers frequently cover the release of state test results, emphasizing…