Principals are in a paradoxical position. On one hand, they're called on to use research-based strategies to improve student achievement. On the other, they're increasingly required to micromanage teachers by observing in classrooms and engaging in intensive evaluation. The authors point out that these two positions are at odds with each other. In…

A teacher establishes red flags--clear and unambiguous warning signals--that enable her to intervene before students fail. Any student who has less than an 80 percent class average or who receives less than 80 percent on a quiz immediately moves into an intervention cycle in which the teacher regularly "checks in" with the student. Interventions…

As instructional coach at Spring Grove Area High School in Pennsylvania, the author realized that too many of the school's freshmen were becoming what one might call lost in transition; they never made it to their sophomore year. He joined with concerned teachers and counselors from the school and its feeder middle schools to create a freshman…

The underlying premise of Response to Intervention (RTI) is that schools should not wait until students fall far enough behind to qualify for special education to provide them with the help they need. Instead, schools should provide targeted and systematic interventions to all students as soon as students demonstrate the need. However, schools…

The AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program helps students, particularly those in the academic middle, prepare for the rigorous courses that can help them get into college. AVID students take an elective class in which they learn organizational and study skills, receive tutoring, and support one another. Teachers in AVID schools…

What would happen if schools offered all students the same challenges and opportunities that some schools now offer only their "best" students? The Southern Regional Education Board addressed that question in 1987, when it developed the High Schools That Work Model. Blending challenging college-preparatory content with modern vocational and…

The Penn-Delco School District in Pennsylvania uses a walk-through process focused on looking at student work and talking with individual students. The purpose is to ascertain what those students are able to express about their own learning. At the beginning of each year, a committee of teachers at each of the district's schools meets to identify…

The author's work has produced numerous instances in which barely literate students have improved dramatically because poetry composition provided them with the motivation to write. (Author/MLF)

In 1982-83 the St. Paul, Minnesota, schools introduced computers using LOGO programs into the system. Research shows that, as a result, half the students improved in academic performance, and low-achieving students improved at the same rate as other students. MD)

Teachers are not adequately engaged in collaborative inquiry where it matters most, in the daily learning-teaching interactions between students and teachers, leading to failure in developing true learning communities by majority of school improvement efforts. Collaborative analysis of student learning (CASL), a particular form of learning…

Describes a program that helps students build general learning skills and subject specific skills. The success of the program is based on providing students an environment conducive to active learning. (MD)

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: In general, coaching improves student scores on achievement and aptitude tests--including the SAT--but not very much. While the SAT is not invulnerable to coaching programs, only a few students have found impressive results. Coaching produces the following average gains: On the SAT, .15 standard…

This literature review cautions that the issue of whether promotion or retention is more beneficial to student achievement is especially murky when it becomes a political decision. It concludes that grade retention seems to ignore the question of instructional effectiveness, blames the child for failure, and absolves the school of responsibility.…

Establishing a strategy for staff development avoids pitfalls involving the definition of goals, the analysis of evaluation data, and the identification of essential competencies. (Author/MLF)

In this article, the author draws attention to the fact that in school evaluations, students will improve on state-mandated tests, but the improved scores will not influence a school's adequate yearly progress (AYP) status because those students' scores do not cross the proficiency point. A state's proficiency point on each of its standardized…