This study investigated the effect of probation on individual performance motivation, organizational processes, and patterns of instruction in schools that were on probation for low achievement in Maryland and Kentucky. Findings are based on case studies of 11 schools on probation, 7 in Maryland and 4 in Kentucky, and all 11 schools had high…

The Reading Recovery Program, designed to help low-achieving first graders learn to use effective reading strategies, was fully implemented in the Durham, North Carolina, public schools in the 1994-1995 school year. An evaluation was conducted to assess the effects of the program over time through the achievement of students in the 1994-1995…

In 2000, the U.S. Department of Education and the Consortium for Policy Research in Education invited a range of people involved in schoolwide improvement to the Regional Forum on Turning Around Low-Performing Schools. Participants examined the responsibilities of federal, state, and local entities to do what is needed for students in high poverty…

In May 2000, the New York State Board of Regents adopted amendments to regulations of the state department of education to implement a System of Accountability for Student Success (SASS) to expand on the program of registration review for schools performing below state standards. SASS aligned institutional accountability with the new state…

Because NAEP estimates of state-level achievement play an important role in the evaluation of strategies for improving the nation's educational system, it is important that these estimates have as small a standard error as possible. NAEP estimates for state-level achievement are based on measurement of the performance of a random sample of…

Over the past decade, the standards-based reform movement in education has focused attention on the responsibility of schools and school systems to produce results in student learning. Nationally this focus is most evident with the implementation of accountability provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001. However, even…

The low performance of Chile in the TIMSS 1999 international study of mathematics and science achievement was a great disappointment. To investigate the likely causes for low performance in mathematics, this study 1) compared Chile to three countries and one large school system that had comparable economic conditions but superior mathematics…

This study examined the relationship between self-concept variables and academic achievement in 72 African American inner-city high school students. The self-concept variable of particular interest was racial self-concept, those perceptions about the self that develop as a result of racial identity. The hypothesis that racial and global…

This chapter concentrates on policies that increase the efficiency of schools rather than just more spending. The first focus is on the causes of educational inefficiency. These include lack of standards and accountability, centralization, unaccountable management and labor, federally induced inefficiency, and nonmarket inefficiency. Steps…

This study invesitigated possible reasons for the low performance on the text-based writing assessment of the Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) in 2000, especially for grades 3 and 5, and considered ways to improve classroom instruction. In the first part of the study, a panel of teachers reviewed the anchor papers from the assessment and…

This report describes achievement gaps found in the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), North Carolina, compares the status of the WCPSS to achievement in the past, and compares WCPSS to other similar school systems and national data when available. On almost all academic measures, white females were the most successful students in the…

This study describes a program for students in the target 4th, 7th, and 8th grades who exhibit low achievement in writing. This low achievement affects behaviors, attitudes, and peer interactions. Discipline referrals, district assessments, and teacher written assessments substantiate this dilemma. Probable cause for lack of writing skills has…

The drastic actions that have been taken in the District of Columbia public schools offer many lessons for those interested in urban school reform. In November 1996, the District of Columbia's federally appointed financial control board took over the school system, firing the superintendent and replacing the elected school board with an appointed…

This collection of papers presents three approaches to urban educational reform. After "Introduction--Urban Education Reform: Competing Approaches" (James G. Cibulka and William Lowe Byrd), Part 1, "Systems Reforms of Urban School Systems," includes (1) "Accountability at the Improv: Brief Sketches of School Reform in Los…

This study investigates the differences in the degree of low academic achievement of third and fourth graders living with single-parent families from 11 industrialized countries. The United States ranks first among the countries compared in terms of the achievement gap for children in single- and two-parent families. After controlling for…