This quantitative and qualitative study sought to examine the factors that teachers in a poor socio-economic, high-minority, urban, inner-city school district determined were important when gauging their effectiveness in the classroom. The study focused on the selection of specific factors by approximately seventy-five teachers from seven of eight…

Many schools placed under Program Improvement because they have not met the AYP requirements of the NCLB mandate are required to build in time during the school day for teachers' professional collaboration to improve their performance in the classrooms. A lack of research exists to explore how professional collaboration improves teaching and…

Workers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields play a direct role in driving economic growth. Yet, because of how the STEM economy has been defined, policymakers have mainly focused on supporting workers with at least a bachelor's (BA) degree, overlooking a strong potential workforce of those with less than a BA. This report…

When President George W. Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002, the U.S. national high school graduation rate was 72.6 percent. Today, the national high school graduation rate has reached an all-time high of 81 percent and the number of low-graduation-rate high schools has declined considerably. While this progress is notable,…

The Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) is a nonprofit national association representing more than 2,500 individual members as well as 685 graduate and undergraduate programs of professional social work education. Founded in 1952, this partnership of educational and professional institutions, social welfare agencies, and private citizens is…

This brief provides an overview of the Instructional Improvement System (IIS) models for State education agencies in Hawaii, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio and Rhode Island, along IIS goals in the following areas: (1) Standards and Curriculum; (2) Instructional Practices; (3) Assessment and Growth; (4) Learner Profiles; (5) Data…

Beginning with the Reagan administration and perpetuated by Obama's presidency are patterns of public speeches--crisis discourse and Utopian expectations--and educational policy that began with 1983's "A Nation at Risk," accelerated through Goals 2000, and codified without much critical concern as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) under George…

This Statistics in Brief examines private loans by institution sector, tuition amount, student characteristics, and level. This study attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How did undergraduate borrowing from private sources change from 2003-04 to 2007-08 and who obtained private loans?; (2) To what extent did undergraduates combine…

Since 1965, Head Start has provided comprehensive services to help prepare the nation's most disadvantaged three- to five-year-old children for school and to strengthen their families. In 1998 Congress instructed the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) to conduct an evaluation of Head Start to determine its impact on child development…

This report details Title III accountability policies and outcomes for K-12 English language learner (ELL) students for school year 2007/08 in the six Southeast Region states (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina) under the Title III annual measurable achievement objectives (AMAO) provision of the No Child…

The purpose of this study was to solicit feedback of alumni of one Upward Bound's college preparation program on a selective public university campus in New England to explore the effects of the program's core components or elements on their college attendance and on their perceptions and attitudes about the program's effectiveness. The goal of…

Federal Title I funding has been allocated to districts since 1965 in an effort to provide schools with a high population of identified low socioeconomic students with additional resources to close the achievement gap. The basis for this study was to ascertain whether the Title I funding that schools received was having a positive impact on…

No single relationship in a school district has a greater impact on successful education than that between the school board and superintendent (Kowalski, 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine and compare perceptions of South Dakota public school superintendents and board presidents regarding collaboration practices for communicating…

State testing programs today are more extensive than ever, and their results are required to serve more purposes and high-stakes decisions than one might have imagined. Assessment results are used to hold schools, districts, and states accountable for student performance and to help guide a multitude of important decisions. This report describes…

Although Early Head Start (EHS) is a federal-to-local program, there are opportunities for collaboration at the state level that have expanded in recent years. State leaders can seize opportunities to break down silos and create collaborative state systems and programs to better meet the needs of vulnerable young children in their states. This…