Advising has been identified as a strategy that influences the retention and graduation of many underrepresented populations in higher education including, students of color and women. For Black women, multiple identities, including race and gender, intersect in ways that need acknowledgement during the socialization process. Given the growing…

Although standards-based IEP goals have been mandated in many states for almost a decade, their effectiveness is unknown. Standards-based IEP goals were first created to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind and Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, which increased accountability for all students as well as those with…

During the fall of 2012, the Donnell-Kay Foundation surveyed the state's superintendents and charter network leaders to better understand the principalship in Colorado today. Some key findings of the survey are presented in this report. The findings include perceptions that there is a shortage of quality leaders to run Colorado's schools, that the…

The purpose of this autoethnographic narrative inquiry was for the researcher to describe and explain how he discovered, constructed, and refined his sense of moral purpose as a principal during his seven-year tenure at Orange Pines Middle School. He inductively analyzed and reflected primarily on self-authored texts tied to critical professional…

Students are non-randomly assigned, or sorted, into classrooms in various ways across and within schools. In this study, we use longitudinal data sets from three districts to investigate a metric for the characterization of sorting at the school level. We analyze whether non-random student assignment is associated with value-added estimates for…

The enactment of No Child Left Behind (2002) and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act had a significant impact upon how we hold schools and its students accountable for high stakes testing. In particular, students with educational disabilities who were previously exempted from any performance accountability on…

Typically, achievement gaps between groups of students are measured as either differences in average scores or differences in proficiency rates. But, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers have long recognized that these approaches don't tell the whole story. Average scores, for example, are good at summarizing trends but can mask real…

Adult and continuing education has the dual function of contributing to employability and economic growth, on the one hand, and responding to broader societal challenges, in particular promoting social cohesion, on the other. Companies and families support important investments that have, to date, ensured important growth in both skills and the…

Under Title III of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB), the Texas Education Agency is required to establish Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives (AMAOs) for the English language acquisition and academic achievement of limited English proficient (LEP) students. This 2013 Guide to Annual Measurable Achievement Objectives provides AMAO…

The recent calls for increased accountability in higher education, and the rising demand for workers with middle skills, have combined to raise public awareness of the critical role of community colleges in educating the workforce. The accountability measures used by the institutions in answering this call, completion and retention rates, may not…

With the adoption of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2002, the federal government signaled its intention to close achievement gaps in K-12 education, particularly for minority students. While there has been surprising progress in educating disadvantaged students since the law was passed, according to a new report released today by Education…

Educational leaders not only face moral and ethical decisions regarding their classrooms, schools, districts, and education institutions, but they also must consider the complexities and threats that impact their communities. In this unstable era of war, terrorism, natural disasters, accountability, and high stakes testing, this process is…

Assessment, accountability, and strategic planning are all processes that are included in accreditation for colleges and universities. For most colleges and universities, starting the reaffirmation process means identifying current assessment practices and reports from academic units and programs. This paper discusses the lessons learned during a…

This article describes a framework for how to provide more accessible, relevant, and effective instruction in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education to all students. The STEM for All initiative asserts that all students, including those with disabilities and other diverse learning needs, should be included in meaningful…

In the push to bring data to bear on all of the important education issues of the day, one essential fact is often overlooked: Not all indicators are created equal. This book provides a comprehensive approach for understanding how statistical measures of achievement are developed, evaluated, and interpreted. Given the extent to which…