This study seeks to identify the characteristics and training experiences of teachers who are differentially effective at promoting academic achievement among English language learners (ELLs). Our analyses indicate that general skills such as those reflected by scores on teacher certification exams and experience teaching non-ELL students are less…

School leadership has been shown to exert a positive but mostly indirect influence on school and student outcomes. Currently, there is great interest in how quality leadership preparation is related to leadership practice and improved teacher outcomes. The purpose of the study was to understand the moderating influence of leadership preparation on…

There is a great deal of research supporting Reading Recovery as a successful reading intervention program that assists below level first graders readers in closing the gap in reading at the same level of their average peers. There is a lack of research that analyses the cost-effectiveness of the Reading Recovery program compared to the cost in…

This article examines the effectiveness of four elementary school math curricula: (a) "Investigations in Number, Data, and Space"; (b) "Math Expressions"; (c) "Saxon Math"; and (d) "Scott Foresman-Addison Wesley Mathematics" ("SFAW"). These curricula are distinct from one another and represent many…

We are in the midst of what amounts to a national experiment in how best to attract, prepare, and retain teachers, particularly for high-poverty urban schools. Using data on students and teachers in grades 3-8, this study assesses the effects of pathways into teaching in New York City on the teacher workforce and on student achievement. We ask…

Thousands of schools around the country have implemented whole-school reform programs to boost student performance. This paper uses quasi-experimental methods to estimate the impact of whole-school reform on students' reading performance in New York City, where various reform programs were adopted in dozens of troubled elementary schools in the…

A growing body of evidence indicates that the test scores of low-income children drop significantly relative to their higher-income counterparts during the summer months. This study finds that a well-implemented summer learning program can improve reading skills and increase the extent to which parents encourage their children to read during the…