Using the "HSTW" ["High Schools That Work"] Assessment Reading Test results, SREB [Southern Regional Education Board] has identified a set of literacy-based experiences that may contribute to higher reading achievement. This report explains the different school and classroom practices experienced by students reading above and below the Proficient…

Although the number of high-needs schools that are failing to achieve "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP) steadily increases, some are successfully increasing student achievement, staff productivity and collegiality. The purpose of this study was to use a three-round Delphi process to obtain the expert opinions of 10 administrators who…

The director of a small career academy of the arts in a public high school reflects on the conflicting demands to establish a college-preparatory program adhering to state standards and to facilitate the personal growth, artistic discovery, and democratic empowerment of teens. By narrating experiences that go to the heart of philosophical discord,…

This report is the final result of a six-year study of America's school finance system, including more than 30 separate studies at a cost of $6 million and involving an interdisciplinary team of more than 40 scholars including many of the country's best known economists, policy analysts, lawyers, and specialists in school finance, instruction,…

Pennsylvania is one of a handful of states that are leading the way in ensuring children receive a continuum of care starting at birth and extending throughout childhood so that they can move seamlessly from home to child care to preschool to school, and then from grade to grade. That means children have to be ready for school. It also means that…

The Maine Department of Education (MDOE) is at the forefront of national efforts to align high school curriculum to college and career readiness standards. Embarking on a mission it calls A Personal Journey for Next Generation Learners, Maine has employed several key strategies to ensure all of its students graduate from high school with the…

This paper contributes to the debate over how the federal government can best help state and local authorities improve student achievement by providing examples from other countries of innovations in the role of the national government. The authors believe that the degree to which foreign policy structures parallel those of the United States are…

Because of the important role played by community learning providers, Premier Ed Stelmach asked Canadian Minister of Advanced Education and Technology to increase support for community education and literacy programs. Community Adult Learning Councils and other community providers of adult literacy and family literacy programming are primarily…

In Spring 2007, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation awarded funds to the Philadelphia Youth Network (PYN) to undertake an analysis of Career and Technical Education (CTE) in Philadelphia, and to make recommendations on how CTE and other forms of career-connected education could better align with Philadelphia standards for college and career…

Background/Context: School districts are responsible for helping schools improve learning for students. However, many district initiatives conflict with each other or with existing instructional practices in schools. Recent research on urban school reform points to the value of program coherence in sustaining school change. Our paper addresses an…

Ontario has an opportunity to implement meaningful and transformational changes that exploit the potential for growth in the new economy and drive it's prosperity to unprecedented levels. But the threats to Ontario's future are just as great. Failing to move forward now with significant measures could leave Ontario unprepared for the challenges…

In looking for examples of districts that were making gains both in assuring teacher quality and in reducing gaps in student achievement, researchers continually came to Clark County, Nevada and Hamilton County, Tennessee. While the road to reform and the specific steps each district took were different, they shared a fundamental element--in both…

Filling the Gap with Innovations is a study of a higher education professional development model used to infuse a teacher education program with technology innovations in order to address curriculum gaps. Professional educators at the university level are not traditionally collaborative. Yet, when an assessment of program alignment to state…

This generation of young people is on track to be less-educated than their parents--for the first time in American history. This, at the same time the world and workplace are changing dramatically and rapidly--when students, more than ever, need high levels of skill in order to compete. Advance Illinois has developed this report "We Can Do…

This article is concerned with understanding continuity and stability in teaching, and their significance. It looks particularly at the work of Anthony Giddens on structure and agency, that of Martin Heidegger on the limits of discursive and theoretical analysis, and the communitarian strand within ethics. It applies this discussion to…