The purpose of the Teacher Prep Review is to guarantee teachers have expertise in reading instruction (as well as other essential areas NCTQ assesses) before being trusted to teach children to read. By regularly reviewing the reading coursework provided by nearly 700 elementary teacher preparation programs, the National Council on Teacher Quality…

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling, of March 2017, favored the plaintiff, Endrew F. in the "Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District" case. This decision strengthens the Rowley decision of 1982 and has raised the bar requiring an increased responsibility for Districts to provide programs to eligible students with disabilities the…

Results from the 2013 NAEP assessments show fourth- and eighth-graders making progress in mathematics and reading. Nationally representative samples of more than 376,000 fourth-graders and 341,000 eighth-graders were assessed in either mathematics or reading in 2013. Results are reported for public and private school students in the nation, and…

Results from the 2013 NAEP assessments show fourth- and eighth-graders making progress in mathematics and reading. Nationally representative samples of more than 376,000 fourth-graders and 341,000 eighth-graders were assessed in either mathematics or reading in 2013. Results are reported for public and private school students in the nation, and…

This project is a multi-site, multi-year study designed to test the efficacy of a fully developed intervention, Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR), with adolescent readers. In year 1, the research questions were: (1) "Does CSR improve reading comprehension for adolescent readers attending relatively low SES schools?"; and (2)…

Mounting evidence suggests that the traditional sequence of developmental education courses hinders community college students from entering college-level coursework and ultimately earning a credential. For example, using data from colleges participating in the Achieving the Dream initiative, an analysis by Bailey, Jeong, and Cho (2010) found that…

Since the 2003-04 school year, Save the Children, U.S. Programs, has supported programming designed to improve reading skills among struggling students in rural areas. The literacy program includes both afterschool and in-school interventions with small groups of children. These are implemented by well-trained paraprofessionals and are designed to…

Improving teacher effectiveness is high on the list of most education reformers in Colorado, as it is nationally. Effective teaching in the elementary years is of vital importance to ensure not only that children master fundamental skills, but that performance gaps narrow rather than widen beyond repair. Disadvantaged students can catch up…

For five years running, the National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has tracked states' teacher policies, preparing a detailed and thorough compendium of teacher policy in the United States on topics related to teacher preparation, licensure, evaluation, career advancement, tenure, compensation, pensions and dismissal. The "2011 State…

The Colorado edition of the National Council on Teacher Quality's (NCTQ's) 2009 "State Teacher Policy Yearbook" is the third annual look at state policies impacting the teaching profession. It is hoped that this report will help focus attention on areas where state policymakers can make changes that will have a positive impact on teacher…

In 1997, Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes partnered with Pueblo School District 60 (PSD60), a heavily minority urban district with many Title I schools, to implement a theoretically based initiative designed to improve Colorado Student Assessment Program reading scores. In this study, the authors examined achievement in Grades 3-5 during the…

Common instructional practices in the teaching of language minority students are described. The case study of a fourth grade classroom in Longmont (Colorado) illustrates how a teacher's enthusiasm for literacy instruction creates an environment where all students, including the Hispanic language minority, can be active participants. (SLD)