Category » Reform

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  A checklist for improving your annual performance report for indicator 13

  1/1/07 - National Secondary Transition Technical Asssistance Center,

  The Checklist provides a set of questions that states can use to evaluate the quality of their APR response to Indicator 13.

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  America’s perfect storm: Three forces changing our nation’s future

  1/1/07 - Kirsch, I., Braun, H., Yamamoto, K., Sum, A.

  This report “looks at the convergence of three powerful sociological and economical forces that are changing our nation's future: (a) substantial disparities in skill levels (reading and math); (b) seismic economic changes (widening wage gaps); and (c) sweeping demographic changes (less education, lower skills). (The authors show that) there is little chance that economic opportunities will improve among key segments of our population if we follow our current path. To date, educational...

• Collection and Use of Evidence

  1/1/05 - National Center for Culturally Responsive Educational Systems,

  Notice the number of times that data and evidence appear in NCCRESt’s principles. Saying that teachers, families and administrators need data to make decisions is one thing, understanding and using data well is another. In fact, few teachers and administrators have been educated in programs that have focused on making meaning from data and then using those analyses to guide school improvement and classroom instruction. This module is designed to help building leadership teams learn the...

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  Conducting Focus Groups to Develop a Comprehensive School Portrait

  1/1/05 - National Institute for Urban School Improvement, , University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center,

  This On Point is for all teachers who want to explore issues around conducting focus groups to develop a comprehensive school portrait. Focus groups are an effective means of collecting qualitative information that can be used to guide improvement planning and efforts. Building Leadership Teams can use focus groups to find out almost anything about the climate, day-to-day operations, and individual perceptions of the school. Conducting focus group can help in developing a comprehensive...

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  Corrective action in low-performing schools: Lessons for NCLB implementation from State and district strategies in first-generation accounability systems

  5/19/09 - Education Commission of States,

  The goal of state intervention in a school or district designated as low-performing is not to punish. It is to help figure out how to improve student learning. The challenge, particularly for a chief state school officer or state board of education, is how best to leverage assistance to schools that have varying degrees of need. Most state legislatures have provided the state board the authority to act. How to proceed with limited funding and staffing is the truly difficult question. This...

• Data use for continuous quality improvement

  Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center,

  The Data Use for Continuous Quality Improvement web site is a part of the Assessment and Accountability Comprehensive Center and provides resources for states to help them reach No Child Left Behind goals. The website was created and is regularly updated by the National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST) in partnership with WestEd, and supported by the United States Department of Education.

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  Data-driven decision making based on curriculum-embedded assessment: Findings from recent California studies

  1/1/06 - California Comprehensive Center,

  A large amount of national research supports the concept of using data driven decision making to improve student achievement. This brief produced by the American Institutes for Research (AIR), as a partner in the California Comprehensive Center (CA CC) at WestEd, summarizes key findings about the use of data driven decision making, including the effective use of assessment data, the role of administrators, the role of teachers, and the role of parents and students, as detailed in three...

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  Developing the capacity for scaling up the effective use of evidence-based programs in State Departments of Education

  1/1/09 - Fixsen, D. L., Blase, K.A., Horner, R., Sugai, G.

  The significant investment in developing evidence-based practices and other innovations will be “worth it” if it helps further the education of students and benefit their families and communities. The State Implementation and Scaling up of Evidence-based Practices (SISEP) Center helps States establish adequate capacity to carry out effective implementation, organization change, and system transformation strategies to maximize the academic achievement and behavioral health outcomes for...

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  Districts on the Move: Unified Student Service in Boston Public Schools: Building a Continuum of Services through Standards-based Reform.

  1/1/01 - Thomas Payzant, Pia Durkin

  This paper tells the unfinished journey of standards-based reform in the Boston Public Schools. It explores the importance of creating a sensible and interdependent relationship between general and special education and illustrates how the strength of working together can impact the power of a large school district to truly serve all students.

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  Educating english language learners at the high school level: A coherent approach to district- and school-level support

  1/1/09 - National High School Center,

  The development of state policy to promote academic achievement for ELLs is critical to improving educational outcomes and consistent with the goals of increasing high school graduation rates and meeting Adequate Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. Recent research indicates that states have multiple opportunities to take the initiative in supporting school systems and schools in their efforts to keep ELLs on track to meet postsecondary success.

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  Eight elements of high school improvement: A mapping intervention

  1/1/08 - National High School Center,

  The National High School Center’s goal is to encourage researchers, policymakers, and practitioners at all levels to engage in comprehensive, systemic efforts to maximize attainment for all high school students, with a focus on those students who have been historically underserved. To this end, we have developed a framework that consists of eight core elements and provides a lens for mapping school, district, and state high school improvement efforts.

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  Emerging evidence on improving high school student achievement and graduation rates: The effects of four popular improvement programs

  1/1/06 - Herlihy, C. M., Quint, J.

  The National High School Center released methods for improving low-performing high schools based on some of the most rigorous research currently available in the school reform arena. This research brief identifies lessons learned as well as key practices used to strengthen high schools and is based on evaluations of four widely used high school improvement programs.

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  Equity in Special Education Placement: A School Self-Assessment Guide for Culturally Responsive Practice Form A (Administrators)

  1/1/05 - Heraldo V. Richards, Alfredo J. Artiles, Janette Klingner, Ayanna Brown

  An instrument that allows schools to conduct a self-assessment of their programs and practices in five domains: (a) School Governance, Organization, Policy and Climate, (b) Family Involvement, (c) Curriculum, (d) Organization of Learning, and (e) Special Education Referral Process and Programs.

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  Equity in Special Education Placement: A School Self-Assessment Guide for Culturally Responsive Practice Form B (Asessment Only)

  1/1/05 - Heraldo V. Richards, Alfredo J. Artiles, Janette Klingner, Ayanna Brown

  An instrument that allows schools to conduct a self-assessment of their programs and practices in five domains: (a) School Governance, Organization, Policy and Climate, (b) Family Involvement, (c) Curriculum, (d) Organization of Learning, and (e) Special Education Referral Process and Programs.

• Evidence-based practices

  National Secondary Transition Technical Asssistance Center,

  Information regarding NSTTAC’s review of evidence-based practices and results of that review, including Practice Descriptions, organized by the categories of the Taxonomy for Transition Programming, and Research to Practice Lesson Plan Starters. Additionally, there are other evidence-based secondary transition resources from the What Works in Transition Synthesis Project.

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  Findings from the early college high school initiative: A look at best practices and lessons learned regarding a dual enrollment program

  1/1/07 - National High School Center,

  This research brief on the Early College High School Initiative (ECHSI), a dual enrollment program developed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, examines lessons learned and best practices gleaned from an evaluation specific to the ECHSI, “Early College High School Initiative 2003-2005 Evaluation Report.” These findings help inform those interested in developing or implementing dual enrollment programs as a strategy to accelerate learning and help bridge transitions after graduation.