Sections 9302 and 9303 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), as amended in 2001 provide to States the option of applying for and reporting on multiple ESEA programs through a single consolidated application and report. Although a central, practical purpose of the Consolidated State Application and Report is to reduce "red…

Indicators of many kinds are used to monitor critical aspects of national life and inform public policy. These include economic indicators, health indicators, and demographic indicators. For more than a decade, the National Assessment Governing Board has been conducting research to determine the potential of the National Assessment of Educational…

In October 2010, WestEd's Strategic Literacy Initiative (SLI) won an i3 "Validation" grant to scale up and validate the Reading Apprenticeship (RA) model in three core secondary content area classes: U.S. history, biology, and English language arts. SLI's proposal stated two goals. Goal 1: To transform academic literacy teaching and…

Magnet schools are one of the largest sectors of choice schools in the United States. In this study, we explored whether there is heterogeneity in magnet school effects on student achievement by examining the effectiveness of 24 recently funded magnet schools in 5 school districts across 4 states. We used a two-step analysis: First, separate…

Providing academic assistance to English Language Learners (ELLs) is varied and often ineffective. The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to determine if there was a relationship between 9th grade students' performance on the High School Graduation Exam (HSGE) in reading and language and the Push-in and Pull-out models of instruction.…

As the ACT has become part of North Carolina's mandatory testing program, SAT participation in Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) and North Carolina has declined in recent years. However, SAT performance in WCPSS remains high compared to state and national averages. In 2012-13, students in WCPSS continued to score 50-60 points higher on the…

Recent changes to state laws on accountability have prompted school districts to design teacher performance evaluation systems that incorporate student achievement (student growth) as a major component. As a consequence, some states and districts are considering teacher value-added models as part of teacher performance evaluations. Value-added…

Policymakers and practitioners frequently use teacher surveys to inform decisions on school improvement efforts in low-achieving schools. There is little empirical evidence on how the results of these surveys relate to student outcomes. This study provides information on how perception data from a teacher survey in Idaho is correlated with three…

Houston Real Men Read is chaired by Texas Senator Rodney Ellis and spearheaded by the Houston Independent School District (HISD) Board Trustee Paula M. Harris. Houston Real Men Read is a mentoring program in which men from the Houston community committed one hour, once a month, to read to second, fifth, and seventh-grade students. The program…

In this, the fourth in a series of reports on the condition of American education sponsored by Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance, the authors deepen their analysis of the U.S. education challenge. The state-by-state data come from the 2011 tests administered to representative samples of U.S. students in 8th grade by the National…

On the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress, one-third of U.S. 4th graders performed at or above the proficient level in reading. That's the good news. But what about the two-thirds of students who "didn't" read proficiently in 4th grade? For students who enter school with below-average language development, a one-year gain…

The principal aim of the present study was to better guide the Quranic recitation appraisal practice by presenting an application of Generalizability theory and Many-facet Rasch Measurement Model for assessing the dependability and fit of two suggested rubrics. Recitations of 93 students were rated holistically and analytically by 3 independent…

The purpose of this study is to provide insight into the elements needed to produce a high quality professional development program for teachers. The researcher sought to determine possible factors that had a significant relationship to Mississippi public school teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of their professional development…

Teacher pension systems target retirements within a narrow range of the career cycle by penalizing individuals who separate too soon or remain employed too long. The penalties result in the retention of some teachers who would otherwise choose to leave, and the premature exit of some teachers who would otherwise choose to stay. We examine how the…

Opinion regarding the importance of skilled reading converges in an almost unanimous voice. Despite the overwhelming importance of reading, 33% of fourth graders experience reading failure (The National Center for Education Statistics, 2009). Additionally, classrooms are composed of diverse learners with various learning styles and abilities…