With the demands on student learning and school accountability, school leaders and teachers must be provided with high-quality structures and conditions for effective and meaningful school improvement. This, coupled with highly effective leadership, is crucial. This qualitative study examines Illinois's current state comprehensive school…

The quality of early childhood care is an important issue for millions of American families and more broadly for American society. State and regional Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs) were created to support and encourage Early Childhood Education (ECE) center improvement with the goal of providing quality learning experiences for the…

Research has suggested the "No Child Left Behind Act" passed in 2001 has resulted in narrowed curriculum and a failed attempt at its primary objective to close the achievement gap. Understanding changes that have occurred in student achievement from 2011 to 2014 of the NCLB requirements is the focus of this quantitative ex-post facto…

Comparing a small, rural school with sometimes less than 100 students to a massive inner-city school with greater than 2,500 students is crude and untenable. There are simply too many variables. Nonetheless, the No Child Left Behind Act treats these two very different schools the same. When urban and rural schools cannot meet AYP or highly…

The No Child Left Behind legislation has drawn a great deal of attention to the gap' that exists between the academic performance of Black and Hispanic students as compared to their White counterparts. While numerous reform efforts have been implemented to address this disparity, to date little research has been done to connect a teacher's sense…