This study examined the impact of 3 2nd-year charter schools (1 elementary, 1 middle, and 1 high school) on student achievement, school climate, and pedagogy. All schools served predominantly African American students in an inner-city district. Using a matched treatment-control student analytical design, charter school enrollees were individually…

Discriminant analysis was used to ascertain whether or not student achievement and expenditure per pupil allow one to distinguish between Ohio charter schools and their associate public schools. The sample consisted of 129 Ohio charter schools and 30 associate public schools. The difference in means between the two types of schools was significant…

Over the past five years the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) has used the results of the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) to rate public school performance on the School Accountability Report (SAR). The public often considers the school ratings as indicative of the school's quality. There appears to be a lack of quantitative…

This paper provides an overview of U.S. Department of Education programs authorized and funded under federal law. It includes information as well on the laboratories, centers, and other facilities funded by the Department that provide important resources for education. Each entry, which gives a brief overview of a program or resource, is listed…

The Oregon Statewide Report Card is an annual publication required by law (ORS 329.115), which reports on the state of public schools and their progress towards the goals of the Oregon Educational Act for the 21st Century. The purpose of the Oregon Report Card is to monitor trends among school districts and Oregon's progress toward achieving the…

Alberta parents enjoy a range of choices for their children's education, including the option of home education. Alberta's "School Act" and its funding guidelines for education recognize the central role of parents in the education of their children. No matter what your decision about educational programming, your ongoing involvement…

Disgusted by what he and his staff considered to be poorly written, poorly stapled, and generally disorganized mandatory citywide exams sent to Fritsche Middle School by the Milwaukee Public Schools central office in the fall of 1999, Principal Bill Andrekopoulos committed an act of ownership theretofore unheard of in the 100,000-student school…

For the thirty-sixth year, the Research and Theory Division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) is sponsoring the publication of these Proceedings. Papers published in this volume were presented at the annual AECT Convention in Anaheim, California. The Proceedings of AECT's Convention are published in two…

Julius Bennett was once a disinterested student destined to become a dropout. Then he enrolled in Amistad Academy, an academically focused charter middle school intent on narrowing the achievement gap between urban and suburban kids located in New Haven, Connecticut. Now Julius is making plans for college. In this article the author details the…

To help inform policymakers and the public about the progress of education in the United States, Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report, "The Condition of Education." This year's report presents 42 indicators on important topics and trends in U.S. education. These…

One of the most intractable problems facing urban schools is the low performance of middle school-aged children. This is particularly true for the 13,360 students who attend the Baltimore City Public School System's (BCPSS) traditional middle schools, which serve only 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. Not one of these 21 middle schools met…

The author's students were an unhappy, skeptical group of middle school students. Many of them had emotional issues. Many had drug addiction and prostitution in their broken and poverty-ridden families. Her school, which is a small charter school in a remote Arizona town, was a place of last resort for these students, who probably would not…

This study took place at a newly formed charter school serving 150 students in a large metropolitan city in the southwest. Students were mostly Hispanic (98%), and all were eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in interviews with 45 sixth- (n = 28), seventh- (n = 10), and eighth- (n = 7) grade…

This report is one of nine detailed case studies of small urban high schools that served as the foundation for the Education Resource Strategies (ERS) report "Strategic Designs: Lessons from Leading Edge Small Urban High Schools." These nine schools were dubbed "Leading Edge Schools" because they stand apart from other high…

This study contributes to the field by identifying a broad range of traditional and newer middle grade policies and practices, and determining in California which of these differentiate higher- from lower-performing schools serving similar student populations, with performance measured by the state's standards-based tests. Based on a sample of 303…