Most districts help teachers use data to improve student learning, often supporting this effort with federal funds. But many teachers feel unprepared to use student data to inform their instruction -- referred to as data-driven instruction (DDI) -- and there is little evidence of whether it improves student achievement. This report assesses an…

"Literacy Design Collaborative" aims to help teachers improve their effectiveness in the classroom with a focus on supporting their literacy instruction. "Literacy Design Collaborative" provides professional development, coaching, and resources to support teachers to work collaboratively in their schools to create and use…

"Literacy Design Collaborative" aims to help teachers improve their effectiveness in the classroom with a focus on supporting their literacy instruction. "Literacy Design Collaborative" provides professional development, coaching, and resources to support teachers to work collaboratively in their schools to create and use…

"Literacy Design Collaborative" aims to help teachers improve their effectiveness in the classroom with a focus on supporting their literacy instruction. "Literacy Design Collaborative" provides professional development, coaching, and resources to support teachers to work collaboratively in their schools to create and use…

Super Star Chef is an experiential summer youth nutrition education and cooking program designed to enhance participants' nutrition knowledge, food preparation skills, cooking self-efficacy, and intention to eat more fruits and vegetables. In a program evaluation comprising a single-sample pretest-posttest design, participants' pretest and…

In this dissertation, I examine how two major social programs in Kentucky--state-funded preK and Family Resource and Youth Service Centers--impact children's outcomes across the state, including racial, ethnic, and economic equity through elementary school. In each chapter, I will analyze how early childhood opportunities relate to outcomes…

Background: Students who do not acquire social and emotional skills are at risk for a range of negative outcomes that include emotional and behavioral disabilities, lower school achievement and school failure, peer rejection, substance abuse, and school dropout (Downer & Pianta, 2006; Riggs et al., 2006 Quinn & Poirier, 2004). Tools for…

The Afterschool Alliance, in partnership with Dollar General Literacy Foundation, is proud to present this issue brief examining the vital role afterschool programs play in building students' literacy skills. This issue brief will focus on the year-round support needed to help students with their reading, writing and critical thinking skills. This…

This report describes how five states -- Alabama, Kentucky, Maryland, Tennessee and Texas -- made exceptional progress in student achievement during the first decade of the 21st century. State leaders in these states all realized early in the decade that they had a problem they wanted to address. They established a "plan" at the state…

The primary aim of Project M[superscript 3]: Mentoring Mathematical Minds was to develop and field test advanced units for mathematically promising elementary students based on exemplary practices in gifted and mathematics education. This article describes the development of the units and reports on mathematics achievement results for students in…

The purpose of this study was to determine what, if any, associations exist between students' academic success on achievement tests and the predictor variables of students' socioeconomic status, participation in an after-school program, and gender. Middlesboro Intermediate School contains a high number of students who participate in the federal…

"Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Elementary Mathematics" is a core curriculum for students at all ability levels in kindergarten through grade 6. The program supports students' understanding of key math concepts and skills and covers a range of mathematical content across grades. The curriculum focuses on questioning strategies,…

This year the Center on Education Policy analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps between…

In order to examine trends in educational reform in Kentucky, two studies of student portfolio evaluations as perceived by Kentucky teachers were described and compared. Under the Kentucky Educational Reform Act, student portfolios can serve as a basis for official evaluation of school performance. The first study, conducted in the fall and spring…

Measuring History complements the cases presented in Wise Social Studies Practices (Yeager & Davis, 2005). Yeager and Davis highlight the rich and ambitious teaching that can occur in the broad context of state-level testing. In this book, the chapter authors and I bring the particular state history tests more to the fore and examine how…