In the fall of 2007, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) was invited by Philadelphia's School Reform Commission to conduct a Strategic Professional Development Review for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). ERS is a nonprofit organization that is nationally recognized for its extensive work in partnering with urban school districts to make…

Improving high school graduation rates has in recent years become a growing concern to state and local policymakers for a number of reasons: the reduced economic opportunities and increased social costs for individuals without a high school diploma; the economic consequences, such as reduced tax revenues; and the need for more college graduates.…

The Pittsburgh Public School district is one of many urban school systems across the country that is struggling to boost student performance and regain the respect of its community. Achievement gaps are wide; student achievement is low; and public confidence is fragile. To begin addressing these issues, the Council of the Great City Schools…

By the time they enter kindergarten, many low-income children are already behind their peers from more advantaged backgrounds. During early childhood, low-income children face a number of risk factors that threaten healthy development and learning, including low birth weight, stunted growth, obesity, and lead poisoning--all of which are associated…

This paper culminates three years of research on the use of various teaching technologies and methods by the faculty of Adelphi University School of Business in Garden City, New York. Previously, papers on this research were published on the development of the research instrument, the administration and data analysis for full time faculty (Part…

There has been considerable interest recently in the teaching of skills to undergraduate students. However, existing methods for collating data on how much, where and when students are taught and assessed skills have often been shown to be time-consuming and ineffective. Here, we outline an electronic research skills audit tool that has been…

The Asian Tsunami struck Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004. Sri Lanka was the second worst affected country after Indonesia, and this natural disaster killed in excess of 35,000 people and displaced over 1 million. The article explores the Tsunami Disaster Management Program developed by one Sri Lankan university: the Postgraduate Institute of…

This report describes and evaluates the methods, procedures, techniques, and activities that produced the fourth (1992) follow-up of the High School and Beyond (HS&B) study. HS&B began in 1980 as the successor to the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The original collection techniques of HS&B were replaced…

This manual is intended to help people working in local libraries collect and report statistics about what they do and complete the Texas State Library annual report form. Texas uses the annual reports to determine whether local libraries are eligible for membership in the Texas library system. Definitions and explanations are given for…

This document contains conference papers, other speeches, and supplementary material from the first International Conference on Total Quality Management (TQM) and Academic Libraries, held in 1994. The conference was comprised of four sessions, and the introductory remarks of each are included, along with transcriptions of each session's…

As part of an effort to reduce high school dropout rates in large city school districts, Phi Delta Kappa, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the Council of Great City Schools, and a group of large city school districts undertook an effort to determine baseline statistics in high schools in large cities by using standardized…

This report summarizes results from research aimed at improving the quality of information collected about school curriculum. The research sought to design and pilot a model for collecting benchmark data on school coursework. These more indepth data, such as course textbooks, assignments, exams, and teacher logs, can serve as anchors against which…

Science process skills such as observing, classifying, inferring, interpreting, predicting, and hypothesizing can all be classified as a sub category of thinking skills. This book is part of the series "Strategies for Learning" that focuses on the step-by-step development and application of thinking skills as a vehicle for learning science. The…

This article discusses the research potential for some of the National Center for Educational Statistics' data sets, specifically those focused on junior and senior high school students. All share some characteristics, but it is the most recent (National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988) (NELS:88) which is the most comprehensive. Since data is…

In response to the accountability movement, schools must develop appropriate data sources and use them for decision making. This paper describes a data-collection and data-analysis procedure that can be used at the school building level. The process uses software for survey administration and data analysis for conducting practical automated…