In this multiple case study, we apply sense-making theory to examine and compare how middle school special and general educators perceive and respond to teacher evaluation reform, including formal classroom observations, informal walk-throughs, and student growth measures. Our findings reveal that special educators experience conflict between the…

By coincidence or not, Massachusetts, Illinois and Virginia created civic education task forces not long after national test results showed a dismal understanding of the subject matter across all grade levels. Results of the 2010 National Assessment of Educational Progress showed just 25 percent of all testtakers in grades 4, 8 and 12 demonstrated…

This study explored perceptions of English-as-a-second-language (ESL) teachers on the prereferral process for Latino English language learners (ELLs). Using Colaizzi's (1978) phenomenological approach, qualitative data were collected through interviews with four ESL teachers. Analyses of the data indicated that the ESL teachers used research-based…

This report explains that The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)--known since 2001 as No Child Left Behind (NCLB)--requires states to set annual objectives for increasing student achievement in reading and mathematics and closing achievement gaps among student subgroups. Under the flexibility waiver granted by the US Department of…

This latest brief updates education leaders on the key policies the 13 (Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states plan to implement under federal waivers to No Child Left Behind. It details,…

This general achievement trends profile includes information that the Center on Education Policy (CEP) and the Human Resources Research Organization (HumRRO) obtained from states from fall 2008 through April 2009. Included herein are: (1) Bullet points summarizing key findings about achievement trends in that state at three performance…

Examining the implementation efforts associated with NCLB mandates and policies can help educational leaders frame their associated school responses and actions to better meet the challenges set forth by the federal legislation in meeting the needs of their local student populations. This study addressed the question, "How are middle school…

This study was designed to determine the extent to which middle-level principals reported the use of literacy leadership dimensions and whether or not a predictive relationship exists between the use of these dimensions and student reading proficiency in Grades 6 through 8 in Region 2 in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Also examined was the…

Pamela Moran, superintendent of Albemarle County (Virginia) public schools, sees ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) as a once-in-a-lifetime chance. "I don't think that in the history of public schools--certainly since I entered them in the 1970s--there has been an opportunity such as this," she says. "The last time there…

Nearly 7,000 students drop out of the nation's public high schools each school day, and 3,000 of them are in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Altogether, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers in the United States abandon high school each year without earning a diploma. In 1,700 of the nation's high schools, less than 60 percent of…

Gifted students are often underserved because they do not have access to highly challenging curriculum. In October, 2002, Project LOGgED ON (www.scrolldown.com/loggedon/) at University of Virginia received federal funding from the Jacob Javits Act to tackle this issue. Those who were part of the LOGgED ON project developed advanced science…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Virginia for 2010. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Virginia showed across-the-board gains--improvements in reading and math at the proficient-and-above and advanced levels for all racial/ethnic subgroups, low-income…

This report investigates progress in Virginia public schools in satisfying the requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 that every student be proficient in reading and math by 2014. It develops a variable change model that uses observed baseline proficiency and proficiency trends at individual schools to forecast gains for six subgroups…

Debate about teacher supply, demand, retention, and attrition has been renewed in recent years by an increased concern about the reduced numbers of prospective teachers entering teacher education programs, the high attrition rate of beginning teachers, and the resulting teacher shortages. U.S. schools are experiencing teacher shortages, especially…

Volume I begins with the Commissioner of Education's introduction of the 1908 report. Chapter I is on current topics and discusses education relations, including professor, teacher and student exchanges. International congresses are discussed, including the first international congress of mothers, parents' national education union, universal…