Creating a space for learning science outside the traditional classroom shifts the expectations for both educators and children. In the classroom, both groups have preconceived notions of their roles and of what classroom science looks like. In the hybrid space of afterschool, students and educators are free to explore alternative ways of teaching…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Oregon's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Oregon will implement to address those challenges. Oregon continues to make great strides in efforts to create a dynamic early learning system capable of anticipating…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2014 describes Oregon's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Oregon will implement to address those challenges. The 2014 Annual Performance Report provides an overview of Oregon Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge Grant…

The Early Learning Challenge (ELC) program awarded more than $1 billion in four-year grants to 20 States to implement comprehensive and cohesive high-quality early learning systems that support young children with high needs and their families. A key lever in making these improvements was the enhancement of States' Quality Rating and Improvement…

The Common Core State Standards' emphasis on informational text arose in part from research suggesting that employers and college instructors found students weak at comprehending technical manuals, scientific and historical journals, and other texts pivotal to work in those arenas. The common core's vision of informational text includes literary…

Mike Shaughnessy is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics at Portland State University in Oregon. He served as co-chair for the Board for the Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education of the American Educational Research Association from 2005-2007. A member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers…

States vary greatly in their implementation of standards-based accountability under No Child Left Behind, yet little evidence is available to guide policymakers on what attributes of state policy advance more tightly aligned instruction. This study uses survey data and content analyses from the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum to describe elements of…

This study examines the rates of exclusionary discipline (i.e., suspensions and expulsions) among English learners and non-English learners in six diverse Oregon districts that serve a third of the state's English learner students. Using 2011/12 databases from the Oregon Department of Education, the study found that differences in suspension and…

At open-access two-year public colleges, the goal of the traditional assessment and placement process is to match incoming students to the developmental or college-level courses for which they have adequate preparation; the process presumably increases underprepared students' chances of short- and long-term success in college while maintaining the…

The author collaborated with teachers and a English Language Learners (ELL) specialist at an elementary school that had a high percentage of ELLs, primarily from Spanish-speaking heritage, where teachers were in the early stages of exploring uses of English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards for English Language Development (ELD) (Oregon…

This paper is part of a series investigating the implementation of competency education. The purpose of the paper is to explore how districts and schools can redesign grading systems to best help students to excel in academics and to gain the skills that are needed to be successful in college, the community, and the workplace. In order to make the…

Governors are increasingly aware that the emerging economy will provide few well-paying jobs for workers who have not earned a postsecondary degree or a relevant workforce certificate. Fifty years ago, nearly 80 percent of all jobs required only a high school diploma or less and most paid a good wage. Fast-forward to data from 2013 and that number…

The Oregon English Language Learner Report is an annual publication required by law (ORS 327.016). This report provides financial information for English language learner (ELL) programs, the objectives and needs of students eligible for and enrolled in an English language learner program, and provides information on the demographics of students in…

As debate continues around the development and adoption of common standards in English and mathematics, several states are independently wrestling with rewrites of standards in a content area largely absent from that national discussion--social studies--and encountering their own shares of controversy. Flash points in the social studies debates…

As states are working to align their education systems with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in support of the goal of graduating all students ready for college, careers and life, academic and career and technical education (CTE) leaders at the state and local levels can and should maximize this opportunity to finally break down the silos…