This book builds upon the best-selling first edition to provide additional guidance and support for educators who are "ready, willing, and able" to explore more sophisticated uses of data. New tools and activities facilitate active engagement with data and a collaborative culture of collective responsibility for the learning of all…

Effective schools should be superior in both enhancing students' achievement levels and reducing the gap between high- and low-achieving students in the school. However, the focus has been placed mainly on schools' achievement levels in most school effect studies. In this article, we attend to the school-specific achievement dispersion as well as…

The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is currently implementing two comprehensive school reform initiatives, Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW) and Making Schools Work (MSW). The purpose of both initiatives is to raise student achievement, and they both rest on the belief that all students can complete a rigorous program of studies at middle…

This paper is a report on a study of the effect of charter schools on both students attending them and students in neighboring public schools in Michigan. Using school-level data from Michigan's standardized testing program, the study compared changes in tests scores between charter and public school students. The data included annual math and…

This research report from Contra Costa Community College District (CCCCD), California, summarizes relevant findings from assessments of the performance of students receiving transfer education, and CCCCD's progress in meeting its Partnership for Excellence (PFE) goals in this area. Findings reported include the following: (1) Student Goal…

Two decades ago, many of the strengths and advantages of small rural schools were understood. These include a greater sense of community, which enables closer relations between faculty and administration, between teachers and students, and among teachers; less violence; better school-community relationships; more parent participation; greater…

A study examined the extent to which high schools are preparing American Indian students for college. Counselors were surveyed at 47 on- and off-reservation high schools serving Indian students in 16 states. Only 17 percent of Indian students in the schools were enrolling in college. Under 10 percent of Indian students were taking 4 years of…

In 1997, AEL, a regional educational laboratory, invited more than 100 people from 18 primarily rural school communities in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia to join the QUEST network, a 3-year program dedicated to building quality learning communities that support high levels of student and adult performance. School stories from…

In 2003-04 representatives from six baccalaureate-granting Hispanic-Serving Institutions in three state public university systems participated in a project entitled, "Latino Student Success at Hispanic-Serving Institutions." These institutions include two from California State University--(Los Angeles and Dominguez Hills), two from City…

A growing body of studies into the job of teaching has described it as an overwhelmingly demanding task due to its very nature. This demanding job requires, among many others, a careful consideration of the issue of what the candidate owners think of the department of primary teacher education. This study, undertaken when a group of pre-service…

This booklet addresses three questions about small schools, commonly posed by skeptics: "What do we really know about small schools?" What is there to recommend them?" and "Can we explain their track record?" With regard to the first question, large-scale studies compared the records of 300 students in 8 small New York…

In fall 1996, California's Los Rios Community College District (LRCCD) undertook several initiatives to increase enrollment, including the construction of state-of-the-art computer laboratories to meet demands for high tech training and the expansion of course offerings to non-traditional times. To evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts,…

The Consortium on Inclusive Schooling Practices (1996) developed a framework to analyze state and local policies and their relationship to the development of inclusive schooling practices. The framework focuses on standards-based systemic reform across six major policy areas: curriculum, student assessment, accountability, personnel development…

This report presents an overview of the literature on school/teacher effectiveness and improvement, with a focus on implications for developing countries. Sections 1-2 discuss the trend toward site-based management, which has increased pressures on individual schools and their staff; eight key domains of school effectiveness; and the need to…

In the fall of 1998, Broome Community College (BCC) began the process of examining its mission in light of its re-accreditation review by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. In its Self-Study Report, submitted in January 2000, the college committed itself to developing a set of core indictors that would measure how well it was…