The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the length of years of preschool attendance on the academic achievement and retention of third and fourth grade students in high and low achieving schools. The study consisted of the analysis of secondary data, i.e., mathematics and language arts literacy scores as the measurement of academic…

As a nation, we should be committed to providing quality education to all of our students. However, only five percent of over 450 schools in New Mexico with a large ELL population met the AMAOs during the 2007-2008, and 2008-2009 school years (Title III AMAO Results, 2007-2008, and 2008-2009). The AMAOs are: 1) Making Progress in English, 2)…

In this investigation, 55 of the 72 Suffolk County public schools were analyzed using archival data gleaned from the New York State Education Department's BEDS report for the years 2000 to 2005. Three primary research questions were used to determine if the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 had an impact on four ethnic groups, wealth of different…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the academic impacts of the Twenty-First Century Community Learning Centers on students who participated in this program. The following research questions guided the study: (a) are there significant differences between the Criterion Reference Competency Test English Language Arts scores of…

This results improvement resource guide includes a listing of TA&D programs and centers that provide technical assistance related to academic achievement results improvement for students with disabilities. The website URL, target audience(s), and purpose are provided for each center/program. In addition, a brief example describing the…

Administrators in America's rural school districts are uniquely challenged to meet increased achievement expectations despite decreasing resources. Mandated reform initiatives, population decline, and the complex formulas used to distribute tax-based funding have disproportionately affected rural schools. In this mixed-methods study, researchers…

This study investigates the effects of the Family and Child Education (FACE) prekindergarten program on school readiness. The FACE program is located in Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools on some of the most rural American Indian (AI) reservations in the United States. It explicitly integrates the language and culture of the communities in…

This article discusses how the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) accountability mechanism of No Child Left Behind makes use of supposedly objective standardized test scores to describe schools in a certain way when the very same results could serve to draw very different conclusions. Examining the proficiency scores of students from a specific middle…

Since the 1990s, the federal government required public state universities in Mexico to recruit full time faculty members with doctoral degrees and research productivity to increase the academic competitiveness of higher education. After two decades of the implementation of federal mandates, public state universities have not improved their…

As the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation chronicled in its last year's Fordham Sponsorship Accountability Report, "Seeking Quality in the Face of Adversity", the 2008-09 school year was a brutal one during which schools, and their peers, faced many existential threats. The 2009-10 school year was Fordham's fifth year as a charter school…

How good does an early childhood program have to be in order to achieve school readiness outcomes for children? This is known as the "threshold question," and policy makers and others have wanted an answer to this question since the onset of public investments in early care and education (ECE) programs. With expansion of Head Start and…

As service-learning is adopted by growing numbers of higher education institutions, there is increasing interest in understanding the factors necessary to sustain service-learning for the long-term. Institutions that were early adopters of service-learning may offer important insights into what factors influence long-term sustainability. With this…

This article explores the sociopolitical context of education policy, particularly as it relates to Latina/o education. The authors highlight the status of Latinas/os within the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to examine the impact of education policy designed to benefit few and disenfranchise most. They draw attention to the injustices of Latinas/os…

In this article, the authors explore contexts that have shaped the federal program for personnel preparation in special education. A brief review is provided of the historical, political, and policy considerations that influenced the directions, implementation, and impacts of the federal personnel preparation program funding at particular points…

In 2001, President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in an effort to improve the quality of education for all students and to ensure that students of disadvantaged circumstances were not unnoticed. School administrators in Mississippi are seeking ways to meet the requirements of NCLB and to increase the number of successful…