This special report -- informed by the Education Commission of the States' March 2018 School Improvement Thinkers Meeting -- guides state leaders toward a better understanding of how to improve lower-performing schools. This brief contains questions in four key areas to provide a road map for digging into school improvement systems and orienting…

The purpose of this study was to examine whether students who participate in school athletics at Blue High School (a pseudonym) in Maryland perform better academically regarding GPA, attendance, and in-school referrals, in-season versus out-of-season. This study focused on athletic participation and academic achievement. An examination of coaches'…

Proficiency in mathematics involves the seamless synchronization of conceptual understanding, procedural knowledge, computational fluency, and problem solving (NMAP, 2008). Clearly, fluency with mathematics facts is one element embedded within mathematical proficiency and important for students with disabilities to develop. As more and more…

Research findings support the use of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) as a curriculum supplement for improving math skills, including math fact fluency. There are a number of websites and mobile applications (i.e., apps) designed to build students' math fact fluency, but the options can become overwhelming. This article provides implementation…

Vocabulary knowledge is an important foundation skill for reading across all subject areas. Because students with disabilities lag behind their peers in reading skills, there is a need for efficient and effective vocabulary interventions. Focusing on morpheme knowledge is one efficient approach to building vocabulary. This article describes an…

Research regarding the technical adequacy of growth estimates from curriculum-based measurement of reading progress monitoring data suggests that current decision-making frameworks are likely to yield inaccurate recommendations unless data are collected for extensive periods of time. Instances where data may not need to be collected for long…

Effectiveness of continuous assessment can be judged by making observation and collecting information periodically from specific tasks given to students during their learning process. Present research aimed to explore outcomes of continuous assessment that enhanced the academic achievement of elementary school students. A sample of sixty students…

A majority of high school graduates aspire to earn a college degree (ACT, 2016), yet many students are graduating from high school unprepared to do college-level work. As a result, about one-third of college freshmen enroll in at least one developmental course upon entry to college (Skomsvold, 2014). Because developmental courses are often not…

State tests lack the sensitivity and frequency to reflect ongoing academic improvement of students who are well below grade-level proficiency standards. As a result, some states are using screening and progress-monitoring data, collected as part of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS) model, to evaluate early student-level progress toward SiMR…

The purpose of this paper is to examine the practices of formative assessment in the West Arsi zone secondary schools in Ethiopia. A descriptive cross-sectional survey research design was employed. The study participants were secondary school supervisors, principals, teachers, and students. Questionnaires, interviews, observations, and document…

Within multitiered systems of support, assessment practices that limit the amount of time students miss instruction should be prioritized. At the same time, decisions about student response to intervention need to be based upon technically adequate data. We evaluated the impact of data collection frequency and trend estimation method on the…

Despite broad consensus that a research-to-practice gap exists in the education of students with autism, the extent of this gap has not been well studied. We surveyed 99 teachers in Ohio about their highest priority goals for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), their approach for addressing these goals, the degree to which students had…

This slide deck is a toolkit to help districts adapt existing school performance frameworks to the current moment or create new ones. These slides identify and walk through the fundamental questions districts need to consider in designing school performance frameworks that acknowledge the challenges that schools and students are facing, as well as…

This self-study guide provides state and local education agencies and schools with a tool to assess implementation of career readiness practices across a district or secondary school and to plan improvements. It is arranged by implementation areas that have been found to be important to career readiness efforts based on a review of the literature…

California continues to fall below national averages in identifying and serving infants, toddlers, and preschoolers with developmental disabilities. The transition between infant/toddler services, administered by the Department of Developmental Services, and preschool services for 3- to 5-year-olds, administered by the Department of Education, is…