The purpose of this quantitative study was to provide school district leaders and policymakers information of the impact grade configuration had on academic performance using math and ELA ILEARN scores over a three-year period. The study included data from 585 schools that were classified into four groups: Elementary Setting, Intermediate Setting,…

Now more than ever, school principals play a critical role in the effective implementation of inclusive education programs in their schools, as inclusive practices are becoming tightly embedded in a school's culture (Sailor, 2016; Shogren et al., 2015). The success of inclusive education programs has been primarily supported by school principals'…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the minimum number of observations stated in a district's teacher evaluation plan, observation characteristics described in a district's evaluation plan, and the characteristic of those evaluating teachers had an impact on whether a school would receive a bonus or penalty point for Indiana's A-F…

In this study, we used a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design to examine the English language arts (ELA) and mathematics test scores of emergent bilinguals (EBs) in DLBE 50:50 models versus English as a second language (ESL) models in Indiana over four academic school years. With a focus on the midwestern U.S., we bring attention to a…

Over several years, Clark Pleasant Community School Corporation (CPCSC) schools have dedicated significant professional development hours and time to develop Essential Learnings (ELs) along with proficiency scales that could guide the content of classroom assessments used to determine student mastery. This executive summary highlights key findings…

Policy-makers are frequently interested in understanding how effective a particular intervention may be for a specific (and often broad) population. In many fields, particularly education and social welfare, the ideal form of these evaluations is a large-scale randomized experiment. Recent research has highlighted that sites in these large-scale…

This study sought to determine if there is a relationship between students' scores on the eighth-grade Indiana State Test of Education Progress Plus (ISTEP+) exam and success on Indiana's Algebra End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). Additionally, it sought to determine if algebra success could be significantly predicted by the achievement in one or…

High-potential students from low-income families are at an academic disadvantage compared with their more affluent peers. To address this issue, researchers have suggested novel approaches to mitigate gaps in student performance, including out-of-school enrichment programs. Longitudinal mixed effects modeling was used to analyze the growth of…

The purposes of this mixed method study were to (a) Examine the relationships among principal effectiveness, principal instructional leadership, and student achievement; (b) examine the differences among principal effectiveness, principal instructional leadership and student achievement; and (c) investigate what effective principals do to improve…

This qualitative case study examines teachers' perspectives on testing accommodations for Limited English Proficient (LEP) students taking Indiana's Graduation Qualifying Exam (GQE). The Indiana Department of Education (IDOE) states that the purpose of testing accommodations is to "level the playing field" between LEP students and their…