Major teacher evaluation changes have occurred across the nation during the past decade. Pressed by federal education initiatives and encouraged by research on promising teacher evaluation practices, states and school districts have implemented evaluation systems using new measures of educator practice and student learning. A growing body of…

Successful transition outcomes for youth with disabilities necessitate collaboration within and beyond the school system. Ideally, this collaboration entails a wide range of professionals across school systems, service systems, and communities coming together as part of a "transition network" to contribute to transition planning,…

Historical attitudes to literary creativity often focus on it as a genetic or innate characteristic. Ericsson's notion of 'deliberate practice' and Simon & Chase's 'ten-year rule', however, have shown the importance of sustained practice to achieve high-level performance. The iceberg illusion of elite performance leaves observers marvelling at…

Purpose: This study explored implementation of the middle school concept (MSC) in Illinois middle-level schools, examining relationships between MSC implementation and schools' relative wealth, racial/ethnic composition, and achievement levels. Design/methodology/approach: This quantitative study utilized a sample of 137 Illinois middle-level…

Over the course of six years, a diverse group of school districts and charter management organizations in California ran a substantial experiment in implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in elementary and middle grades. WestEd led an extensive evaluation of that effort, the California K-8 NGSS Early Implementers Initiative,…

This brief draws on interviews with school principals, community school managers (CSMs), and district leaders in two community schools and focused on school improvement efforts based on Oakland Unified School District's (OUSD) full-service community schools model (FSCS). New Highland RISE Community Elementary School (RISE Community) and Elmhurst…

This annual report examines information on school construction completed and underway during 2013 and planned to start in 2014. Among the findings of this report: (1) school districts in the United States spent just over $13 billion ($13,390,396,000) on construction projects completed during the 2013 calendar year; (2) school construction in 2013…

The incidence of writing disorder is as common as reading disorder, but it is frequently under-identified and rarely targeted for intervention. Increasing clinical understanding on various subtypes of writing disorder through assessment guided by data-driven decision making may alleviate this disparity for students with writing disorders. The…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Race to the Top (RT3) and the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) have piled up federal mandates into a "perfect storm" for Georgia teachers. This study considers the impact of this storm through the eyes of 23 Georgia teachers. A tidal wave of federal mandates leaves teachers overwhelmed and skeptical about…

This report uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09). HSLS:09 is a nationally representative, longitudinal study of more than 23,000 students who were first surveyed in fall 2009, when they were in the ninth grade, and then again in spring 2012, when most were in the eleventh grade. Students who had been held back and…

This report presents results from a Danish qualitative interview-based study with teachers, students parents, school leaders and representatives from interest groups (n=22). The focus is on the academic year 2020-21 in Danish compulsory education, which can be described as the first full year with COVID-19. The study reveals how practices from the…

When the National Standards and Benchmarks for Effective Catholic Schools (NSBECS) were first developed, principal and superintendent of Catholic schools in the Diocese of Grand Rapids, Michigan, David Faber writes in this article of his elation at the possibilities for measuring quality and for addressing total school improvement that the…

Because spiritual life and religious participation are widespread human and cultural phenomena, these experiences unsurprisingly find their way into English language arts curriculum, learning, teaching, and teacher education work. Yet many public school literacy teachers and secondary teacher educators feel unsure how to engage religious and…

In this study, the authors explore how classroom tasks that are commonly used in task-based language teaching (TBLT) are achieved as observable aspects of "local educational order" (Hester & Francis, 2000) through observable and immanently social classroom behaviors. They focus specifically on students' language learning behaviors,…

A public university's computing outreach program focused on four key strategies for increasing the depth and breadth of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This paper describes the development and implementation of a project management hands-on learning laboratory activity within the context of the university's…