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The latest research reports, conferences, funding opportunities, and education news directed at practitioners working in school improvement.
New Report: Lessons from Leading Edge Small High Schools
Date Posted: 07/01/2008
This new Education Research Strategies report, Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small High Schools, illustrates how nine high performing, small urban high schools across the U.S. are thinking about and organizing their resources strategically to best meet their students' most pressing needs. Through interviews and reviews of class schedules, staffing strategies, budgets, and more, the report provides a detailed look at how leaders in these Leading Edge Schools carefully and purposefully think about how they use every staff member, each moment of the school day, and every dollar to support student learning.
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New CII Report: School Turnarounds: Action and Results
Date Posted: 06/17/2008
This new Center on Innovation and Improvement (CII) report, School Turnarounds: Action and Results, provides descriptive, real-world vignettes that illustrate for practitioners the actions that successful school leaders have taken to turn around low-performing schools. This resource tool begins by identifying and explaining the fourteen leader actions associated with a successful turnaround. Furthermore, descriptive vignettes are provided to illustrate each leader action. These vignettes were drawn from case studies documenting successful turnarounds. Some vignettes relate to more than one action and are thus repeated where they apply.
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New Civic Enterprises Report: Engaged for Success
Date Posted: 06/04/2008
This report, Engaged for Success:Service-Learning as a Tool for High School Dropout Prevention, presents original and secondary research that shows the ability of service-learning to address some of the principle causes of dropping out. It highlights findings from a nationally representative survey of 807 high school students, including 151 at-risk students, who share their views of service-learning.
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New Council of the Great City Schools Report: Beating the Odds
Date Posted: 06/04/2008
Beating the Odds, the Council of the Great City School's eighth annual analysis of state-mandated tests in 67 big city school districts in 37 states, reveals urban systems are continuing to improve in reading and math. ). Several urban districts (seven in reading and six in math) had both fourth- and eighth-grade scores equal to or greater than their respective states, and the racial achievement gap between urban systems and their respective states generally declined.
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New Arts Education Partnership Report: Highlights Strategies for Arts Integration & Urban School Reform
Date Posted: 05/21/2008
This new Arts Education Partnership (AEP) publication, The Art of Collaboration: Promising Practices for Integrating the Arts and School Reform, is the second installment in AEP’s research and policy brief series that outlines promising practices for building community partnerships that integrate the arts into urban education systems. The publication describes 16 practices used by the demonstration sites in their efforts to improve student achievement, build public support for arts education, and influence local policy.
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New RTI Action Network Web Site Provides Guidance on RTI Implementation
Date Posted: 05/17/2008
The National Center for Learning Disabilities is proud to announce that its Response to Intervention (RTI) initiative, RTI Action Network, has launched its Web site, RTINetwork.org. The site will feature content on implementing RTI from preschool to secondary; information for administrators, teachers, specialists, and families; unprecedented access to the nation’s top researchers and experienced implementers; and numerous networking opportunities to talk to colleagues nationwide.
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RTI Action Network Article: The RTI Data Analysis Teaming Process
Date Posted: 05/14/2008
Data analysis has been a foundational element of school improvement processes. In this article, Joseph F. Kovaleski, Megan Roble, and Michelle Agne of the University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, explain a model of data analysis tailored to the delivery of Response-to-Intervention (RTI) Tier 1, Tier 2, and Tier 3 services. A useful Data Analysis for Instructional Decision Making: Team Process Script and a Screening Information Recording Form can be downloaded from the article.
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New CGCS Research Brief: Supporting Successful Transitions to High School
Date Posted: 05/05/2008
The transition between middle and high school is a defining moment for students on whether they drop out of school or progress to graduation. This Council for the Great City Schools research brief, Supporting Successful Transitions to High School, attempts to synthesize the existing research and provide a set of recommendations for how schools and school systems can organize themselves to meet these challenges and help students make successful transitions to high school.
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National Center on Response to Intervention to Host May 14 Webinar
Date Posted: 05/02/2008
The National Center on Response to Intervention is hosting a Webinar on "What is RTI?" since this topic is a top priority of states. The purpose of this Webinar is to help state education agencies understand what RTI is, which can be used to provide tiered instructional services and to identify students with learning disabilities. This Webinar will describe basic concepts of RTI and how it can be implemented in schools. Examples will be shared to illustrate how teams can be organized within schools to implement RTI.
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New NCES Report: The Nation's Report Card: Writing 2007
Date Posted: 04/29/2008
This new National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) report,The Nation’s Report Card: Writing 2007, presents results from the 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exam in writing. According to the report, average scores have increased significantly for both eighth- and twelfth-grade students since previous assessments in 1998 and 2002. Indeed, since 2002, the percentage of students performing at or above the Basic level of achievement has risen in both grades, increasing from 85% to 88% in eighth-grade and 74% to 82% in twelfth-grade. Moreover, most student groups have improved their scores since the last test, including African-American students in both grades and Hispanic students in eighth-grade. Yet, there has been no change in the percentage of students reaching the higher Proficient level, and whites continue to outperform African-American and Hispanics by large margins at both grade levels.
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Updated NAESP Guide: Leading Learning Communities
Date Posted: 04/22/2008
Developed by principals, in collaboration with the Lab at Brown University, Collaborative Communications, and the Department of Education, this resource guide is intended for administrative leaders at all levels. In its second edition, this National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP) Guide, Leading Learning Communities: Standards for What Principals Should Know and Be Able To Do, is an operating manual for school leaders that features new strategies to help principals structure and support learning communities that develop the whole child, prepare students for a changing global economy and society, rethink the learning day by bridging school and community, and make decisions based on data.
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New Annenberg Institute for School Reform Report: Organized Communities, Stronger Schools
Date Posted: 04/08/2008
This new Annenberg Institute for School Reform report ,Organized Communities, Stronger Schools: A Preview of
Research Findings, is based on a six year study that found community organizing helps expand the capacity of urban public schools to support student success by building support for reform alternatives, increasing equity in the distribution of resources, and generating meaningful parent, youth, and community engagement focused on improved student learning.
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Third Annual NCUST Symposium: Building Excellence in Teaching, May 7-9, 2008
Date Posted: 03/25/2008
The Annual National Center for Urban School Transformation (NCUST) Symposium is an exceptional professional learning opportunity for school leaders. It features lively interactive breakout sessions with school leaders from outstanding urban schools and districts across the nation. In addition, the symposium features keynote presentations by national leaders in urban education improvement as well as an award ceremony for the schools from across the country that are winners of the NCUST Excellence in Urban Education Awards. This symposium will be held at the Westin Horton Plaza in San Diego, California.
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USDE Press Release: National Mathematics Advisory Panel Releases Final Report
Date Posted: 03/18/2008
March 13, 2008: The National Mathematics Advisory Panel released its final report, Foundations for Success: Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel. The panel, created by President Bush in April 2006, was charged with making recommendations to the President and the Secretary on the best use of scientifically based research to advance the teaching and learning of mathematics, with a specific focus on preparation for and success in algebra (grades PK-8). Panelists, including mathematicians, cognitive psychologists, and educators, held 12 meetings across the country reviewed 16,000 studies, and scrutinized surveys from 743 algebra teachers.
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New Alliance for Excellent Education Brief: Costly Effects of Teacher Turnover
Date Posted: 03/11/2008
What Keeps Good Teachers in the Classroom? Understanding and Reducing Teacher Turnover, made possible with the generous support of MetLife Foundation, contends that attracting and keeping high-quality teachers significantly elevates student achievement, especially in poorer, low-performing schools. However, an estimated 157,000 teachers leave the profession every year. An additional 232,000 change schools. The costs associated with both are high, both financially and in terms of teacher quality, as experienced teachers are replaced with novices.
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New CEP Report: Instructional Time in Elementary Schools
Date Posted: 03/04/2008
Last summer, a groundbreaking report verified what many in the education and policy communities had long suspected: that a majority of the nation’s school districts were increasing time spent on reading and math in elementary schools since the No Child Left Behind Act became law in 2002, while most of these districts cut back on time spent on other subjects. A follow-up report, Instructional Time in Elementary Schools: A Closer Look at Changes for Specific Subjects, issued by the Washington, D.C.- based Center on Education Policy provides an unprecedented look at the magnitude of those changes.
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New Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University Article: Using Data for Decisions
Date Posted: 02/26/2008
This Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University article, Beyond Test Scores: Leading Indicators for Education, examines how four districts that are at the forefront of the field in using data to inform decisions are developing and using leading indicators for education. By describing how these four districts have developed and used leading indicators within the context of a strong district “data culture” the Annenberg Institute for School Reform hopes both to catalog specific indicators that have been useful to these districts in increasing student achievement…
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New National High School Center Toolkit: Easing the Transition to High School
Date Posted: 02/19/2008
The transition from middle school to high school represents a significant event in the lives of adolescents, one that necessitates support from and collaboration among teachers, parents, counselors, and administrators at both educational levels. Successful transitions place particular emphasis on ninth-grade initiatives and can create one of the strongest bridges from middle to high school and beyond. This National High School Center toolkit, Easing the Transition to High School: Research and Best Practices Designed to Support High School Learning, contains four resources…
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New Brief: Promoting ELL Parental Involvement
Date Posted: 02/13/2008
This new Education and the Public Interest Center (EPIC) at CU-Boulder policy brief, Promoting ELL Parental Involvement: Challenges in Contested Times, analyzes factors related to the implementation of effective parental involvement with English Language Learners (ELLs). Research supports the importance of parental involvement for improved student achievement, better school attendance, and reduced dropout rates regardless of socioeconomic background or ethnicity.
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New MDRC Report: Providing PD to Improve Teaching and Learning
Date Posted: 02/05/2008
Does providing instruction-related professional development to school principals set in motion a chain of events that can improve teaching and learning in their schools? This report from MDRC attempts to answer this question in its exploratory study by testing out the theory of action of the Institute for Learning using 49 elementary schools in three sites that they have been working with for at least one year prior to the study.
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New CEP Report: School Restructuring in Maryland
Date Posted: 01/30/2008
Building on its experience as one of the first states to have a significant number of schools enter restructuring- the No Child Left Behind Act’s ultimate sanction for persistently low-performing schools- Maryland is retooling its approach to make the process more effective, according to a new report, Making Mid-Course Corrections: School Restructuring in Maryland, from the Washington, D.C.-based Center on Education Policy.
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New Annenberg Institute Study: Beating the Odds
Date Posted: 01/23/2008
The Annenberg Institute has just published the results of a study of 13 New York City schools that are successfully preparing low-performing ninth-graders for timely graduation and admission to college. Principal Associate Carol Ascher and Research Associate Cindy Maguire, coauthors of the study, Beating the Odds: How Low-Performing Ninth-Graders are Making it to College, describe four key strategies these schools use to help their students “beat the odds”: academic rigor, networks of support, high expectations, and effective use of data.
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New Policy Brief: The Role of Interim Assessments
Date Posted: 01/08/2008
School districts increasingly see interim assessments as an important element in their instructional improvement strategy and are implementing interim assessments district-wide in multiple grades and content areas. Yet, they face significant design and implementation challenges to realizing the potential of interim assessments to improve teaching and learning. The Aspen Institute Education and Society Program and Achieve, Inc. partnered with the National Center for the Improvement of Educational Assessment to develop this policy brief, The Role of Interim Assessments in a Comprehensive Assessment System:
A Policy Brief.
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New Report: Building a System of Excellent High Schools
Date Posted: 12/18/2007
This new tool, Building a System of Excellent High Schools: A Framework and Tool for Discussion and Action, from the Academy for Educational Development and the Annenberg Institute for School Reform provides guidelines for district leaders, community stakeholders, educators, administrators, parents, and students to map out the process of transforming their high schools to meet the needs of all students.
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New Report: English Language Proficiency Assessment
Date Posted: 12/11/2007
The federal government, with 2001’s No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, mandated yearly assessment of English Language Proficiency (ELP) for all ELL students in the nation and demanded states to use reliable and valid assessment. This University of California, Davis report, English Language Proficiency Assessment in the Nation: Current Status and Future Practice, presents a national view of the ELP assessments that existed prior to the implementation of NCLB and those created after, some of which were supported by the U.S. Department of Education.
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