This report provides an audit of state policies in Ohio affecting access to, and success in, community colleges for students of color and low-income students. It was commissioned by Lumina Foundation for Education as part of a series of policy audits of the states involved in Achieving the Dream. Lumina Foundation is the primary funder of the…

This book is intended to facilitate the meaningful inclusion of students with disabilities in district and state assessments as required by the 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. First, an introductory chapter offers reasons for including students with disabilities in district and statewide accountability systems.…

Turning around a low-performing school is a complex process in which cause-effect relationships are difficult to isolate. But recent interest in helping low-performing schools--spurred on by the reforms mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act--has generated some useful research and thoughtful analysis. This digest explores some of the key…

The 2002 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, known as No Child Left Behind, significantly expands the role of the federal government in elementary and secondary education and has important implications for rural and small schools. This guide examines 15 areas of the legislation that will have the greatest impact on rural…

This guide is intended to be a practical primer to help education leaders meet the daily challenges of school leadership. It shows how to include leadership in an integrated system of educational accountability, teaching, and curriculum for student achievement; how to do away with ineffective, obsolete, and unnecessary practices; and how to…

This paper is organized around three central questions: (1) What should be the primary goals of high school reform and what is the critical set of outcomes that matter for students? (2)Shat do we know about the strategies schools could use to pursue those goals? and (3) What are the implications of these strategies for the development of high…

Recently the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA) completed a project to connect the scale of the MCA and BST with NWEA's RIT scale. Six Minnesota systems participated in the study, using test information from a group of over 13,000 students enrolled in third, fifth, and eighth grades who took these Minnesota Assessments and NWEA tests in the…

This book provides teachers with insights for using research to improve their teaching, offering a career-long conversation between a world-renowned researcher and an excellent teacher with considerable professional physical education (PE) experience. It includes 30 summaries of studies on elementary PE instruction, class management, program…

This paper is part of a collection of 54 papers from the 48th annual conference of the Education Law Association held in November 2002. It discusses teacher evaluation by principals. Specifically, it presents findings of research that examined the nature of policy creation at the local board level in response to accountability legislation in North…

This is the fourth report of a project designed to monitor and assess progress made by the federal government and targeted states and school districts in carrying out the 1994 amendments to Title I. It presents field research on statewide policies and practices with respect to Title I in California, as well as district and school implementation in…

This report provides state-by-state information on the characteristics and performance of schools and students in each state, information useful for monitoring the progress and evaluating the success of education reforms. The report contains two-page profiles that report the same indicators for each state and the District of Columbia. The…

This project involved field testing and revising the "Standards for Professional Development Schools" (PDSs) and developing an assessment process for their use. Eighteen PDS partnerships participated. They provided information and feedback, developed self-studies, hosted team visits, worked on visiting teams, and volunteered in ongoing…

Among many publicly-funded school choice initiatives that have earned Florida the label "school choice central", none has reached as many children and families as charter schools. Charter schools have flourished in Florida largely because of the state's rapid population growth: many of the districts that are experiencing more than a 10…

This report is the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation's first ever comprehensive analysis of education reform and results in the 50 states. For each of them, this report examines: (1) student achievement, with a focus on poor and minority students; (2) achievement trends since the early 1990s for these same students; and (3) reform efforts centering on…

Selections in this book, which grew from a seminar at New York University between 1994 and 1996, discuss the recent educational innovations of charter schools, contracting arrangements, and choice that are designed to liberate educators and raise the levels of opportunity for all students. The essays, which focus on the urban experience, explore…