School Improvement Grants (SIGs) exemplify a capacity-building investment to spur sustainable changes in America's persistently lowest-performing schools and stimulate the economy. This study examines both short- and longer-term effects of the first two cohorts of SIG schools from four locations across the country. Dynamic…

Charter schools have become a widely used alternative to traditional public schools, both nationally and in the Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Southeast Region. They play an increasingly important role in state reform efforts. South Carolina stakeholders--including the South Carolina Department of Education, the Public Charter School…

The purpose of this report was to determine which Mississippi public schools perform better than could be predicted, considering demographic and socioeconomic characteristics. Additionally, this study identified profiles of schools within Mississippi, or groups of schools with similar socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. This study…

Direct behavior ratings have been identified as a practical and feasible alternative to direct observation of behavior for monitoring behavioral progress. Despite the evidence of usability, there have been calls for further examination of direct behavior ratings using different behaviors and scales. To this end, we examined the ratings of…

This quantitative study examined the relationships between instructional leadership practices of elementary school principals in high-poverty schools and changes in teachers' ELA instructional practices. This research sought to identify principals' perceptions about their use of instructional leadership practices and the teaching practices used in…

Assessments of developmental spelling, also called spelling inventories, are commonly used to understand students' orthographic knowledge (i.e., knowledge of how written words work) and to determine their stages of spelling and reading development. The information generated by these assessments is used to inform teachers' grouping practices and…

This paper provides the first population-based evidence on how much standardized test scores vary among public school districts within each state and how segregation explains that variation. Using estimates based on roughly 300 million test score records in math and English Language Arts (ELA) for Grades 3 through 8 from every U.S. public school…

Background: A supportive school-based physical activity environment (PAE) is integral to children's physical activity behaviors, but less understood is its association with academic achievement. We aimed to assess the association between PAE and academic performance and whether a stronger relationship exists in lower-income schools (LIS) compared…

The purpose of this quasi-experimental, nonequivalent pretest-posttest control group design study was to determine if any differences existed in upper elementary school students' science academic achievement when instructed using an 8-week integrated science and English language arts literacy supplemental instructional intervention in conjunction…

This study investigates school effects on primary school students' language and mathematics achievement trajectories in Chile, a context of particular interest given its large between-school variability in educational outcomes. The sample features an accelerated longitudinal design (3 time points, 4 cohorts) together spanning Grades 3 to 8…

Due in part to higher demands for educational accountability at both the Federal and state levels, the role of the school principal has come to the forefront. Previous literature has considered the indirect ways in which school principals affect student achievement. Of particular interest has been the implementation of instructional leadership by…

The authors used structural equation modeling to map the relationships between student race-ethnicity via the mediating variable physical activity on English language arts (ELA) and mathematics achievement among 964 fourth- and fifth-grade students. The students attended a New York City Metropolitan area school district and completed the Physical…

Previous research has suggested that moral disengagement is strongly associated with bullying and bystander behavior. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a 5-week classroom-wide bullying intervention, "The Bullying Literature Project-Moral Disengagement Version (BLP-MD)", on moral disengagement and bullying among elementary…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) were adopted by most states by 2010. Yet, many teachers still lack confidence in their ability to integrate these standards into their classroom instruction and this uncertainty undermines their effectiveness. This article presents findings from a study of a fourth grade literacy curriculum informed by the…

This study examined the relationship between the structural classroom environment (self-contained, team-taught, and departmentalized) and student performance on the 2014 Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) in reading, Language Arts, mathematics, science, and social studies in grades three through five. A secondary purpose examined…