Over the past few decades, the cost of tuition, room, and board for undergraduate students has increased, making it more difficult for some students and families to afford the cost of college. While students have historically relied on federal loans and grants and family contributions to pay for college, a growing number have turned to private…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a secondary analysis of the impact of school management practices on school performance utilizing a survey design of School and Staffing (SASS) data collected by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) of the U.S. Department of Education, 1999-2000. The study identifies those school management…

This paper presents part I of the "Massachusetts Primer on Special Education and Charter Schools." It provides an explanation of a charter school's legal status within the Massachusetts public education system and a synopsis of federal laws that are most relevant to special education in charter schools. The information is intended for…

The "Rehabilitation Act of 1973," as amended (the "Rehabilitation Act"), provides the legislative basis for programs and activities that assist individuals with disabilities in the pursuit of gainful employment, independence, self-sufficiency and full integration into community life. This report is intended to provide a…

This article examines the power analyses for the first wave of group-randomized trials funded by the Institute of Education Sciences. Specifically, it assesses the precision and technical accuracy of the studies. The authors identified the appropriate experimental design and estimated the minimum detectable standardized effect size (MDES) for each…

Many students at the Edward Coles Model for Excellence World Language Academy or the Rachel Carson Elementary School in Chicago--schools that takes part in the Striving Readers program--say they came to enjoy reading for the first time or became better readers through the program, now in its fourth year. The federal program supports the…

This paper begins with an overview of the location and types of nursery schools reported to be operating in Texas between 1934 and 1943. The author reports on the results of the analysis of the photographs used in this study. The analysis is supported and contextualized by the use of references from federal documents and other publications…

Almost 30,000 schools in the United States failed to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act in the 2007-2008 school year. For states with comparable data for the 2006-2007 school year, the number of such schools increased by 28%. Half those schools missed their achievement goals for two or more years, putting…

Although the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act refers to "low performing" schools as "in need of improvement," no one outside of the U.S. Department of Education uses that phrase. The term most commonly used is "failing." NCLB offers a single, explicit definition of a failing school: one that fails to make adequate…

School leaders desperate for strategies that will improve student learning have often opted to embrace strategies that they have observed being used successfully in other districts. Sometimes, this works; sometimes, it does not. This article presents two vignettes about districts that made similar decisions to implement learning walks. The…

In 2003, the Illinois State Board of Education launched a school designation program for all public schools in Illinois. Based on a combination of test scores, student demographics, and a school's ability to make adequate yearly progress (AYP), schools in Illinois are assigned one of five designations. One of the designations that a public school…

For the people behind the Lumina Foundation for Education, the term "network" has particular meaning. In fact, largely as a result of their work in a national college awareness and action campaign called KnowHow2GO, they have come to define networks in a specific way--and they ask their KnowHow2GO grantees and partners to form networks…

The need for new forms of schooling with a learner-centered focus underlies the urgency to retool and enhance the systems that are used to leverage improvements in teaching and learning. In order to transform education at this most fundamental level, policy leaders and educators must focus on crafting integrated systems for defining and developing…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB Act) reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and provided a framework through which families, educators, and communities can work together to improve teaching and learning. Four principles guide this framework: (1) accountability for results; (2) local control and flexibility; (3)…

Longitudinal Data Systems (LDS) house student data spanning multiple years and schools. First and foremost among LDS information resources is the Data Quality Campaign (DQC). The DQC is a nationwide consortium assembled to support states, districts, and schools as they design and implement data systems to improve student outcomes. The research and…