This book offers a novel and up-to-date exploration of the common belief that increasing conventional school resources will increase academic achievement and help close gaps between various advantaged and disadvantaged students. Taking the scholarship around this question, such as James S. Coleman's 1965 report on the Equality of Educational…

Packed with practical tools, this book provides K-6 educators with a research-based framework for accelerating the reading and writing growth of underperforming students. Strategies and resources are included for building foundational skills, comprehension, and vocabulary; engaging students with independent reading and periodicals; developing…

Although it's easy to connect out-of-school factors such as poverty or the pandemic to achievement gaps in schools today, education leaders need to focus on what's within their school or district's control to ensure equitable learning outcomes for their students. In this practical guide for K-12 instructional leaders, superintendent Teresa D. Hill…

The need to overcome student learning gaps exists in every school. The answer is not a culture of remediation but one of acceleration. Every student deserves to learn at grade level or beyond--this is equity in action. "Acceleration for All" offers research-informed, real-world, and ready-to-implement strategies, with an emphasis on core…

The Forum is pleased to present the "Forum Guide to Student Learning Data During Pandemic School Closures and Beyond." The purpose of this resource is to review how local education agencies (LEAs) and state education agencies (SEAs) changed their approaches to collecting and using student data during the pandemic and how they are working…

"Creating Literacy Instruction for all Students" is the most comprehensive preK to 8 literacy text available, packed with practical instruction and assessment strategies that support the literacy development of all learners. It includes in-depth coverage of every major topic and research-based strategy in literacy education. You will…

Retention in kindergarten involves holding students back from advancing to the next grade level due to unresolved learning gaps. This practice has been the subject of continuous research as educational experts seek to balance the potential developmental risks of prolonging kindergarten by providing students an additional year to fill their…

What if you had a collaborative process of looking at student data that could pinpoint student gaps in learning and suggest effective strategies to close those gaps? What if you knew not only what you should "start" doing to enhance student learning, but also what you should stop doing because it hasn't given you the hoped-for results?…

This book explains seven critical steps to improve children's writing. Though seemingly 'natural', writing proves devilishly difficult for far too many school pupils and closing this gap can have a lasting impact on their academic and life success. With the goal of giving every teacher the knowledge and skill to teach writing with confidence, it…

Students in foster care are a resilient group of individuals who often face many obstacles and changes in environment (e.g., home, school, community) from a young age. While the foster care system's goal is to provide a safe and stable environment for children, adolescents, and transitional age youth, there are many challenges students in foster…

This data brief, featuring infographics, provides a statistical overview of students attending public schools in non-rural areas, such as cities, suburbs, and towns. It delivers essential information for school leaders, parents, educators, and other stakeholders and is updated annually.

Measurement systems give colleges a structure for collecting, sharing, and acting on data. The guidebook and tools presented here help faculty, staff, college leadership, and policymakers understand and use measurement systems--and specifically use data to improve completion rates, close institutional performance gaps, and facilitate economic…

These are the appendixes for the report, "Trends and Gaps in Reading Achievement across Kindergarten and Grade 1 in Two Illinois School Districts." This study examined reading achievement data for kindergarten and grade 1 students in two districts in Illinois: District U-46 (Elgin Area Schools) and District 186 (Springfield Public…

This study explores the direction and magnitude of racial disparities on three advanced placement (AP) computer science (CS) exams, namely AP CS Principles, AP CS A, and AP CS AB, based on the test scores of more than one million students who have taken AP CS exams between 1997 and 2020. Using Mann-Kendall test and Sen's slope procedures we found…

To assess education progress in the early grades and identify achievement gaps, this study examined reading achievement data for kindergarten and grade 1 students in two districts in Illinois: District U-46 (Elgin Area Schools) and District 186 (Springfield Public Schools). Drawing on a different reading assessment in each district, the study team…