Between 2015 and 2019, Holyoke Public Schools in Massachusetts cut its dropout rate nearly in half and increased its graduation rate by 10 percentage points, with notable gains among historically marginalized student groups. The district cites Opportunity Academy (OA), an alternative education program within the district's high school, as a key…

The "Quality Practice Project" (QPP) is the National Association of Charter School Authorizers' (NACSA's) multi-year research initiative to identify what high-performing authorizers do to achieve stellar student and public interest outcomes. Participants and researchers collaboratively investigated the perspectives and practices of…

The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) provides an opportunity for states and local education agencies (LEAs) to rethink the goals and policies that they have in place for public education. Under the new law, education leaders have greater flexibility to define student success and to design their own systems and programs to ensure educational…

This research is a Phenomenological study of what motivates teacher leaders in the Springfield Public Schools, Massachusetts to want to work in an underperforming school and what elements and conditions the teacher leaders identify as essential for their success. This research identifies the necessary conditions for teacher leaders to be…

A significant body of research shows that achievement gaps evident in persistently low-performing schools, in many instances, manifest prior to children entering kindergarten. High-quality early learning programs have proven to demonstrate positive effects on closing academic gaps both for individual children and in the aggregate for the school.…

"Circuits and Electronics" (6.002x), which began in March 2012, was the first MOOC developed by edX, the consortium led by MIT and Harvard. Over 155,000 students initially registered for 6.002x, which was composed of video lectures, interactive problems, online laboratories, and a discussion forum. As the course ended in June 2012,…

A few years ago, in "Student Success in College (SSiC)," the authors profiled twenty colleges and universities that were unusually effective in fostering student engagement and success, defined as better-than-predicted scores on the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and better-than-predicted graduation rates. These schools are…

Colleges and universities work hard to create environments that encourage student learning, and they develop grading policies, in part, to motivate their students to perform well. Grades provide two kinds of information about a student's abilities and learned knowledge: "internal" information that informs the students themselves about…

Since 2006, the Thomas W. Payzant School on the Move (SOM) Prize has been awarded annually to a Boston public school that has made significant progress in improving student achievement. This case study identifies the structures and strategies that best serve students in prizewinning schools, provides a profile of each of the four winning schools…

The report examines the initiatives of state education agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region to support data-driven decisionmaking in districts and schools and describes the service providers hired to support this work. Four components of data-driven decisionmaking initiatives are identified: (1) Centralized data system/warehouse; (2) Tools…

This document presents a summary of the report, "How Eight State Education Agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region Identify and Support Low-Performing Schools and Districts." This larger report describes and analyzes how eight state education agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New…

This report describes and analyzes how eight state education agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, and Vermont) identify and support low-performing schools and districts under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Data collection for the report…

Discusses how the use of state test results in isolation to make important decisions about schools and students essentially guarantees that woes will follow. Situates the discussion in the context of state-mandated testing in Massachusetts and explains why scores on the Massachusetts examinations fluctuate. (SLD)

Many school districts are putting data to good use, although much of the data used in administrative decision making ultimately derives from standardized test scores, which raises a host of other related concerns. The author's purpose in this article is not to critique the types or sources of data that administrators use, but to suggest that there…

The authors provide examples of sports-based youth development programs and offer information about program mission and vision, program design and content, evaluation results, and program sustainability. The four sports-based youth development programs presented are Harlem RBI, Tenacity, Snowsports Outreach Society, and Hoops & Leaders…