The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of a relationship between second-order change leadership behaviors of high school administrators and changes in student achievement on the Florida Standards Assessment English Language Arts/Reading component and the Algebra 1 End of Course examination in two large urban school districts.…

This technical appendix provides additional information about the sample, data, and estimation strategy used for a series of American Educator Panels (AEP) Data Notes published by the RAND Corporation in 2019. The Data Note series is intended to provide brief but incisive analyses of teacher and school leader survey results that may be of…

Scaling in educational settings has tended to focus on replication of external programs with less focus on the nature of adaptation. In this article, we explore the scaling of Personalization for Academic and Social-emotional Learning (PASL), a systemic high school reform effort that was intentionally identified, developed, and implemented with…

This comparative case study examines the prevalence of caring practices in two higher performing and two lower performing urban high schools and the contextual factors that helped or hindered the extent to which students felt cared for. We found that higher performing schools demonstrated caring communities, where interpersonal relationships and…

What are the policies, programs and practices that make some high schools in the same state and district context more effective than others? Motivated to understand the differences between schools with similar size and demographics yet different attendance, graduation and levels of student academic growth, the National Center for Scaling Up…

In FY16, the School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC) outperformed Florida and six other large urban school districts and increased the graduation rate from FY15. The Federal High School Graduation Rate includes standard diplomas but excludes special diplomas and GEDs (General Education Diplomas). This memorandum reports the graduation rates…

On January 5, 2016, the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) released graduation rates for the State of Florida and the School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC). The Federal High School Graduation Rate includes standard diplomas but excludes special diplomas and GEDs (General Education Diplomas). In FY2015, SDPBC outperformed Florida and six…

Underachievement among gifted students is a paradox that frustrates educators because of the significant disparity between students' potential and their performance. Complicating the issue is the highly individualized nature of the underperformance, which must take into consideration factors of student culture, socio-economic status, motivation,…

Research on school reform and implementation has found that past efforts to scale up interventions in schools often results in little change in the core work of teaching and learning (Elmore, 1996). That is, there are often few changes in the work students do with teachers. Thus it is important for researchers and school reformers to know how…

This article presents findings from a year-long multilevel comparative case study exploring the characteristics of effective urban high schools. We developed a comprehensive framework from the school effectiveness research that guided our data collection and analysis at the four high schools. Using value-added methodology, we identified two higher…

In FY2014, the State of Florida and the School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC) outperformed Florida and other large urban school districts and was the only large urban district to have an increased graduation rate. In FY2012, the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) accountability system began using the Federal Graduation Rate, which is a…

City Year is a learning organization committed to the rigorous evaluation of its "Whole School Whole Child" model, which trains and deploys teams of AmeriCorps members to low-performing, urban schools to empower more students to reach their full potential. A third-party study by Policy Studies Associates (PSA) examined the impact of…

On December 11, 2013, the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) released graduation rates for the State of Florida and the School District of Palm Beach County (SDPBC). In FY2012, the FDOE accountability system began using the Federal Graduation Rate, which is a more rigorous standard than the National Governors Association (NGA) rate used…

In 2003 the Public Education Network developed the pilot Revitalizing High School Libraries (RHSL) initiative, funded by The New York Life Foundation. Based on the Library Power Program, it included many of the same features--collaborative planning, flexible scheduling, collection development, and facility renovation--with a focus on how this…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between second-order change leadership behaviors and the grade assigned to schools in large urban districts by the Florida Department of Education (FLDOE). A total of 101 Title I elementary school principals from large urban school districts with 60+% students on Free and Reduced School…