This paper explores Illinois's shift from a general administrative license, called a "Type 75" license, to a "PK-12 Principal Endorsement." It includes both a history of the reform efforts and a look at how implementation has fared nearly a decade after the legislation was signed into law. It also offers lessons and…

Given the authority of state government over public education, one means of narrowing the best-practice to actual-practice gap in education is by putting forth clear state guidance and recommendations to schools. To date, however, little is known about the national landscape of procedural guidance that is readily available to practitioners looking…

This pilot study conducted an initial evaluation of the Center for Improving the Readiness of Children for Learning and Education (CIRCLE) Infant-Toddler Teacher Training program. The program is unique in three ways: 1) use of an online platform with courses that explain social-emotional, language, and literacy development in young children…

We evaluated the validity of an automated approach to learning progress assessment (aLPA) for English written expression. Participants (n = 105) were students in Grades 2-12 who had parent-identified learning difficulties and received academic tutoring through a community-based organization. Participants completed narrative writing samples in the…

This qualitative case study examined the contribution a year-long professional development in the science of reading had on 10 first-grade teachers' knowledge of how reading develops and their instructional practices. Data for this research study was collected through a longitudinal interview process, from pre- and post-knowledge inventory…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate instructional leadership practices and the degree to which these practices predict the leadership self-efficacy of school leaders while controlling for years of experience as a school leader. With educational reform focused on school accountability, principals must attend to tasks that lead…

Evidence of longitudinal relations between language and early literacy skills in early childhood and later reading (and other) achievement is growing, along with an expanding array of early education programs designed to improve later academic outcomes and prevent, reduce, or close later academic achievement gaps across groups. Assessment systems…

The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) is a progress monitoring measure designed to support intervention decisions of the home visitors and early educators who serve infants and toddlers. The present study sought to add to the criterion validity claims of the ECI in a large sample of children using measures of language and preliteracy not…

When data is collected, summarized, and analyzed with sufficient frequency, decisions about instructional changes can be based on student progress. Use the suggestions here to begin conducting progress monitoring.

This 20-year follow-up study examined elementary special educators' use of curriculum-based measurement. Elementary special educators (N = 1,077) in four Midwest states participated in the survey. Results indicated that the overall use of CBM was much higher than 20 years ago with reading CBM as the most prevalent area of monitoring with data used…

Medical educators are tasked with decisions on trainee progression and credentialing for independent clinical practice, which requires robust evidence from workplace-based assessment. It is unclear how the current promotion of workplace-based assessment as a pedagogical approach to promote learning has impacted this use of assessments for…

The overall aim of the current investigation was to develop and validate the initial version of the Minnesota Inference Assessment (MIA). MIA is a web-based measure of inference processes in K-2. MIA leverages the affordances of different media to evaluate inference processes in a nonreading context, using age-appropriate fiction and nonfiction…

The Early Communication Indicator (ECI) is a progress monitoring measure designed to support intervention decisions of the home visitors and early educators who serve infants and toddlers. The present study sought to add to the criterion validity claims of the ECI in a large sample of children using measures of language and preliteracy not…

The purpose of this study was to provide initial evidence of the effectiveness of Check-In/Check-Out-High School (CICO-HS) on high school student outcomes. Check-In/Check-Out-High School is a version of CICO, an established Tier 2 intervention designed to improve student academic and social behavior, adapted to increase effectiveness and…

Educators and researchers measure student improvement in words read correct per minute (WRCM) to evaluate student response to reading interventions. The utility of evaluating improvement in WRCM via curriculum-based measures to make instructional decisions is based upon the assumption that growth in WRCM is predictive of performance on meaningful…