The Montana Autism Education Project (MAEP), that started in 2010, aimed to: (a) increase teacher knowledge of Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs), (b) provide on-site technical assistance and peer-to-peer collaboration, (c) develop sustainable support for teachers across Montana, and (d) develop inter-agency collaboration between the project and…

The Common Core State Standards, adopted by 45 states and the District of Columbia, raise the bar for what students need to learn at each stage of their K-12 education. The goal is to better prepare students for college and careers. The most important thing that education leaders can do to help the Common Core succeed is to support teachers in…

The purpose of this Technical Assistance Paper (TAP) is to provide school districts with updates and changes relative to third-grade student progression policies, including information on alternative assessments, promotion criteria and resources. This paper provides: (1) General Information; (2) Student Portfolios for Third-Grade Students; (3)…

Education in today's world is very challenging. From concerns over the funding of career and technical education (CTE) to discussions about the achievement gap and dropout prevention, to debates about what it means to be college- and career-ready, the role of CTE in educational reform paradoxically is both at the forefront and on the backburner of…

"Under which conditions does ICT have a positive effect on teaching and learning?" This was the leading question of the International EDUsummIT in The Hague, the Netherlands. The bases for the discussion were the scholarly findings of the International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education, a synthesis of research…

Building on Strunk, McEachin, and Westover (2011), the authors examine whether or not District Assistance and Intervention Teams (DAITs) have a differential impact on student performance across school and student characteristics. They use a quasi-experimental design to examine the impacts of DAITs on student achievement on math and English…

In this article, James J. Gallagher proposes that understanding the political issues and the debate surrounding the education of gifted students is based on the recognition that education policy (including rules, regulations, financial allocations, etc.) reflects social policy. Hence, society prioritizes needs so that the most important of these…

This report summarizes the fourteenth survey of states by the National Center on Educational Outcomes (NCEO) at the University of Minnesota. Results are presented for the 50 regular states and eight of the 11 unique states. The purpose of this report is to provide a snapshot of the new initiatives, trends, accomplishments, and emerging issues…

With education failing nationwide and economic restraints affecting both rural and urban educational institutions, Extension should be taking a more aggressive stance instead of operating in what has now become the way of Extension and "collecting numbers." Why isn't Extension more visible in the urban populations that reside in our own backyards?…

Research on evidence use in school districts overwhelmingly focuses within schools on how school staff work with evidence including student performance data, research, and information about teaching quality. While important, this focus on schools reflects a mismatch with federal and state policies that demand not only that school staff work with…

Despite a long history of post-independence aid to education, Kenya's relationships with overseas donors have, until recently, been markedly fractious. Donors' concerns about transparency and corruption, in the context of a political regime which became increasingly authoritarian, led to sharp reductions in aid to Kenyan education during the…

The School Improvement Grant (SIG) program funds reforms in low performing schools. Congress provided $3.5 billion for SIG in fiscal year 2009, and a total of about $1.6 billion was appropriated in fiscal years 2010-2012. SIG requirements changed significantly in 2010. Many schools receiving SIG funds must now use the funding for specific…

Since Congress enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1965, the federal government has emphasized states' shared responsibility for improving student achievement. When Congress reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2001 as the No Child Left Behind Act, it called upon states to provide technical support to…

Purpose: Research on educational leadership underscores the importance of principals operating as instructional leaders and intensive job-embedded supports for such work; this research also identifies central office staff as key support providers. However, it teaches little about what central office staff do when they provide such support and how…

This report, based on a survey of a nationally representative sample of school districts in Common Core-adopting states, examines school districts' efforts to implement the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). The report addresses district leaders' views on the rigor of the CCSS and their impact on learning and instruction, progress on and…