The history between Cheektowaga Central and the University at Buffalo illustrates the benefits of forming long-term collaborative relationships between teacher education programs and local schools. In 1998, the author was approached by Suzanne Miller regarding the possibility of Meg Callahan, then a doctoral student at the University at Buffalo,…

Federal education policy in recent years has encouraged state and local education agencies to embrace data use and analysis in decision-making, ranging from policy development and implementation to performance evaluation. The capacity of these agencies to make effective and methodologically sound use of collected data for these purposes remains an…

A case study approach was used to examine the perspectives of three high school department chairs and their work at providing instructional supervision to the teachers in their departments: math, science, and social studies. We sought to discover the beliefs and practices of three department chairs in one high school, located in a southeastern…

The Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the IFT Foundation, and Discovery Education partnered to create and distribute food science information to science department and school counselor chairs in all 18,000 U.S. high schools in January 2006. Two multimedia "kits" were generated for teachers and counselors, each consisting of DVDs with food…

The following paper provides a case study of the resistance of the New York Performance Standards Consortium to the state's unitary high stakes testing policy from 1998 to 2006. After detailing the history of the grass roots actions undertaken by the group of alternative high schools called "The Consortium," the analysis seeks to apply…

High school improvement initiatives often focus on specific intervention strategies, programs, or priority topics (e.g., dropout intervention). However, research shows that systemic and sustainable improvement can only be achieved when initiatives are implemented with consideration for the broader education contexts in which they operate. The…

This bimonthly newsletter provides information about the progress of the Honor States Grant Program, a governor-led effort to improve college--and work-ready graduation rates. This issue explores how effective education governance can support innovative state policy development, successful policy implementation, and a redesigned high school…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework for providing interventions and services at increasing levels of intensity until students succeed. The framework helps teachers and schools provide instruction and interventions matched to student needs, monitor progress frequently to guide decisions about changes in instruction or goals, and apply…

This report shows how well educators across the United States have increased access to the types of rich academic experiences that prepare students for success in college. By combining national, state and AP (Advanced Placement) data, this report provides educators and policymakers with information they can use to celebrate their successes,…

The Associated Colleges of the St. Lawrence Valley is an educational consortium with four members: Clarkson University, State University of New York at Potsdam, State University of New York at Canton, and St. Lawrence University. Access to higher education at the Associated Colleges has been a special ongoing interest and mirrors a national…

The trouble started when an anonymous e-mail alleged abuse of power at Centennial High School in Howard County, Maryland. Each week, the local paper reported new developments in the investigation. On top of that, the family of a Black student reported that a culture of racism existed at Centennial. At the end of the year, members of the community…

To examine how school characteristics are tied to science and engineering views and aspirations of students who are underrepresented in science and engineering fields, this mixed-methods study explores relationships between aspects of students' science identities, and the representation of women among high school science teachers. Quantitative…

In a recent poll that asked American adults to identify "the single most significant event that has happened in their lifetime, in terms of its importance to the U.S. and the world," 46 percent of the respondents cited the attacks of September 11, 2001, as the most significant occurrence in their lifetime. In light of this result, it is not…

Educational technology is a tool that can be used to support both curriculum development and the efficient delivery of relevant instruction. However, it must be incorporated into the educational environment as both a tool for learning and as a resource if teachers are to prepare students to successfully meet the challenges of the future. One such…

This report provides information on states' progress in implementing the graduation rate all 50 governors agreed by signing the Graduation Counts Compact in 2005 to adopt. The governors undertook this commitment because they understand the imperative to gather more accurate, comparable data on how many of their students graduate from high school…