The vision for transforming the education of the nation's nearly four million teacher workforce presented in this report comes not from any one group but from a diverse group representing a broad range of perspectives. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) Blue Ribbon Panel on Clinical Preparation and Partnerships for…

Using a mixed-method design, this study examined principal and teacher perceptions of change in 10 low-performing schools. Survey data from principals and teachers were used to ascertain the extent of perceived improvements made in specific areas noted in case studies of other low-performing schools that increased student achievement. A second…

Environment and sustainable development show how policies are becoming ever more complex and ambiguous. This trend calls for new evaluation approaches. They need to be more clearly focused on specific, explicit concerns. They must be driven by a strategic concept of use to overcome the vulnerability to manipulation of many integrative, essentially…

The poor performance of middle school students in reading was addressed by examining the effects of an 8-week reading intervention program for middle school students in one school district in the southeastern United States. Two research questions were developed: (a) Is there a significant difference in the level of the students' reading skills,…

The Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now (ConnCAN) kicked off 2010 with its legislative campaign, "Our Race to the Top." This campaign resulted in the passage of a slate of progressive education reform bills. During the summer months, it ran the "Vote for Ed" campaign, which put the issue of Connecticut's struggling public…

A historical case study from a 6-8 middle school in the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania was conducted to examine the extent of teacher collaboration before and after the implementation of the teaming concept as well as the construction of a new middle school. The study was triangulated through the use of multiple data points including…

This report presents the deliberations of the Southeast Regional Advisory Committee (RAC), one of 10 RACs established by the U.S. Department of Education, identifying educational challenges across the six states in the region: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina and South Carolina. Committee deliberations took place May 23,…

Cultivating Awareness and Resilience in Education (CARE) is a professional development program designed to reduce stress and improve teachers' performance. Two pilot studies examined program feasibility and attractiveness and preliminary evidence of efficacy. Study 1 involved educators from a high-poverty urban setting (n = 31). Study 2 involved…

Addressing the problem of youth disengagement from school is of paramount importance to the improvement of academic outcomes. Unfortunately, today's climate of accountability under the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB)--with its focus on data from standardized tests--has created a policy environment that makes it exceedingly difficult to…

Longitudinal cohort analysis is a powerful tool for helping colleges understand student performance. It involves tracking students as a group or cohort over a specified period of time. The results allow administrators, faculty, and staff to identify groups of students who are succeeding or falling behind and the points in the educational pipeline…

The purpose of this report is to describe a "Framework for District Capacity Building and Improvement" and, through the use of two illustrative case stories, explore how districts can engage in rapid and sustainable improvement efforts. The supporting research, our framework, and a corresponding set of rapid improvement indicators is…

Although the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme is offered by many high schools in the United States and considered to be challenging and rich in content, the curriculum has not been analyzed to determine its alignment with college readiness standards or state educational standards in the U.S. The research methodology employed by…

During much of the previous nine years, Tom Carroll had overseen the launch of eight charter schools in Albany. All of Tom Carroll's Albany charter schools made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Not only that, they had become the best schools in the city. Tom Carroll now runs the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability (FERA), which…

Researchers have found a strong relationship between improvements in quality and satisfaction, revenue, and cost. However, no study to date investigates the same for higher education. This study investigates whether institutions of higher education have implemented quality improvement programs, and if so, if the results are similar to what has…

While it is clear that all educational undertakings consist of ends and means, the relationship between the two is far from straightforward. This article proposes a framework for understanding the relationship in the context of citizenship education. Qualitative research was undertaken of three educational initiatives in Brazil: the schools of the…