This rubric was developed for the analysis of intervention programs against the criteria of implementing the four recommendations and accompanying action steps presented in the IES Practice Guide "Providing Reading Interventions for Students in Grades 4-9" for the Adolescent Literacy Intervention Selection Tool (A-LIST). Each item in…

Year 4 continued the Adolescent Literacy Intervention Selection Tool (A-LIST) development work from Year 3 and focused on reviewing the degree to which selected adolescent interventions support evidence-based recommendations. To inform that review, Region 1 Comprehensive Center (R1CC) and the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary…

Like many school systems in economically stressed parts of the country, the Everett, Mass., school district had cut back on arts instruction over the years, to the point where most students were getting only a single art class per week. But since 2013, and thanks to a grant from the U.S. Department of Education, Everett has designed and…

This Framework builds upon the foundation of the 2010 Massachusetts Curriculum Framework for Mathematics as well as versions of the Massachusetts Mathematics Framework published since 1995. The current Framework incorporates improvements suggested by Massachusetts educators after six years of experience in implementing the 2010 standards in their…

This Framework is built upon the foundation of the 2003 and 1997 "Massachusetts History and Social Science Curriculum Frameworks." Based in research on effective practice, it represents the contributions of members of the History and Social Science Curriculum Framework Review Panel, scholars who served as Content Advisors, and the more…

In this article, we highlight the need for a precisely defined construct in score-based validation and discuss the contribution of cognitive theories to accurately and comprehensively defining the construct. We propose a framework for integrating cognitively based theoretical and empirical evidence to specify and evaluate the construct. We apply…

"If someone were traveling to our area for the first time during this time of year, what would you tell them to bring to wear? Why?" This question was used to engage students in a guided-inquiry unit about how climate differs from weather. In this lesson, students explored local and national data sets to give "travelers" advice…

In this technical report, we describe the development of cognitive diagnostic test items that form the basis of the diagnostic system for Project DIVIDE (Dynamic Instruction Via Individually Designed Environments). The construct underlying the diagnostic test is division of fractions. We include a description of the process we used to identify the…

Chartered in 1994 and opened in 1996, the Cape Cod Lighthouse Charter School (CCLCS) was among the first charter schools in Massachusetts. CCLCS strives to foster "intellectual development, academic achievement, project based learning, interdisciplinary studies, community partnerships, environmental studies, global awareness, and an ethical…

Instead of sending home the usual midterm progress reports, a seventh-grade English teacher decided to let students write letters to their parents about their progress in English class. Using weekly progress reports, grades, journal entry responses, compositions, and sample letters, students composed honestly worded letters and received some…