The 20-year partnership between Boston University and the school district of Chelsea, Massachusetts, came to an official end in June 2008. Although the partnership is by many measures successful, the continued success of the district will depend on how well Boston University is able to share with stakeholders management techniques and the…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) supports projects that are designed to reform teacher and principal compensation. Initially, the Department of Education (the Department) made two rounds of awards, in 2006 and 2007, to a total of 34 grantees. The specific goals of TIF were to reward teachers and principals for improving student achievement,…

Schools are implementing new and effective strategies in an effort to graduate 90 percent of students and to ensure that graduates are prepared to succeed in college, advanced training and work. This newsletter describes how schools have redesigned their schedules, organizational structures and cultures in an effort to graduate 90 percent of…

This case study examined a multi-college community college district in northern California in a primarily rural area, to understand how their practices compared to management best practices designed to improve student success, barriers that may exist in implementing best practices, and how the institution may improve its own practices. The problem…

Literacy has become much more than just the ability to read: recent literature related to literacy instruction suggests that an essential goal is to develop in students the ability to think deeply about what they read and to express themselves accurately and expressively in all contexts. There is a growing acceptance of the importance of lifelong…

Many studies of immigrant students in education focus on a single point in time. As a result, explanations of the performance of immigrant and minority students tend to be static, emphasising enduring socioeconomic, school or cultural factors. This article examines the dynamics of the differences in educational outcomes between immigrant and…

This paper presents a new method in engineering education called a continuous-grouped-self-learning (CGSL) system. In general, based on feedbacks acquired from the student at the end of the implementation, students better understanding and appreciation to the courses been taught. Out of 60 students 71.7% admitted that this learning system has…

Can a capacity building policy encourage school leaders to engage in professional development that will increase their focus on student achievement and understanding of instructional leadership? To explore this issue, school administrators were interviewed and a content analysis of plans for professional development generated during the first year…

Researchers have documented that schools can measure teacher effectiveness by student outcomes and that professional development is one pathway to ensure teacher success. However, there is still limited information identifying the learning opportunities for novice teachers that directly influence student performance. The purpose of this…

"Real Leaders, Real Schools" tells the stories of five urban public school principals who led their schools through profound and transformative changes. In each of these cases, their efforts resulted in dramatic improvements in student achievement--improvements that occurred within the current environment of high-stakes tests. The revealing and…

As 2010 unfolds, Americans should feel encouraged by federal, state, and local efforts to transform education policies that boost student performance. In the midst of a recession, rather than merely allocating billions of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) dollars by formula to the states with no strings attached, the Obama…

Hispanic-Serving Institutions have the opportunity to be trendsetters in higher education. As Latino representation in higher education continues to increase across all states and institution types, Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs)--public or private nonprofit degree-granting colleges with enrollments of 25 percent or more Hispanic…

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…

Describes a program to teach students responsibility and accountability for their actions. (Editor/GB)

There is a vast body of research confirming the important influence of the classroom teacher on student achievement. A key issue, then, is how the quality of teaching and learning within individual classrooms can be influenced and improved. This paper argues that educational leadership is a key influence on the quality of teaching and learning and…