Background: The No Child Left Behind legislation creates an increased need for new school-based empirical studies whose implementation will depend largely on researchers' access to various school populations and records. Access decisions are typically made by superintendents, or their designees, functioning as gatekeepers who control right of…

The No Child Left Behind Act's emphasis on universal standards of academic performance, defined as proficiency in grade-level core curriculum and state academic assessments, challenges general education program personnel to higher standards of professional practice. Because schools must report student achievement by subgroups, including students…

No culture associates individual worth with a career like the United States. For juvenile offenders, in particular offenders with disabilities, this presents a significant challenge. In addition, the requirements that have been imposed on all education through the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB; 2001) make programming that is consistent with the…

The pressure is on. For the first time in the nation's history, schools are being required to produce measurable evidence that all students are learning, and they are being asked to do so amidst fiscal crises at the state and local levels. While several legitimate criticisms have been made about No Child Left Behind and its unfunded mandates, few…

This paper presents the Superintendent's 20th Annual Report, a comprehensive overview of Hawaii's public schools for school year 2008-09. This report contains essential progress indicators and measures, as well as highlights and comparisons of core educational data presented in a concise and user-friendly format. Appended are: (1) Glossary; (2)…

This report is the seventh analysis of state reports conducted by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) to examine the extent to which states publicly report information about students with disabilities in statewide assessments. Descriptions of statewide testing systems are presented and examined as to whether these systems included…

The "2005 Annual Report on Our Call to Action: Pursuit of Excellence" details the school system's significant progress toward meeting the identified milestones within each of the system's four strategic goal areas. The overall trend data continue to provide strong evidence of the effectiveness of our strategies and initiatives detailed…

Perhaps the most ambitious example of the way in which flexibility and accountability have been brought together can be found in the State Flex and Local Flex demonstration programs. Although no additional resources are provided to participating states and districts, the enhanced flexibility granted under State Flex and Local Flex allows…

This report presents findings from case studies conducted during the 2003-04 school year, the second year that the supplemental services provisions of NCLB had been in effect. It follows up on baseline data collected the previous school year. This study conducted interviews in a purposive sample of six states and nine school districts, which were…

With the demands of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), the focus of the principal's role is providing instructional leadership in the school. However, one of the first things a school community expects from the principal is that management issues--particularly for special events that occur every year--are successfully administered and organized.…

The statewide implementation of instructional support teams (ISTs) in Pennsylvania is analyzed in terms of the challenge of bringing team-based problem-solving models to scale. The history of the phase-in of ISTs in more than 1,700 elementary schools is presented, and the salient research conducted on ISTs is reviewed. The results indicate that…

Effective exploration of spatially referenced educational achievement data can help educational researchers and policy analysts accelerate interpretation of datasets to gain valuable insights. This paper illustrates the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyze educational achievement gaps in Arkansas. It introduces the Geographic…

Current educational policy highlights the important role that assessment can play in improving education. State standards and the assessments that are aligned with them establish targets for learning and promote school accountability for helping all students succeed; at the same time, feedback from assessment results is expected to provide …

This report begins to address the need for research about the structures, policies, and supports that leaders are implementing to address the needs of low-performing schools. It documents findings from a descriptive research study of four states and one large urban district in the Northeast during the formation and early implementation of new…

In this article, the author explores the possible future for bilingual teachers and teacher educators in the United States in light of the recently enacted No Child Left Behind legislation. She first examines the impact of the law on bilingual education generally and compare it to language policy in the European Union. Then she discusses its…