This issue of "Assessment Update" presents the following articles: (1) Promoting Faculty Engagement in Assessment: Relatively Simple Ideas (Elizabeth E. Smith and Sarah R. Gordon); (2) Comparing Trends in Graduate Assessment: Face to Face vs. Online Learning (Lesley Page and Mike Cherry); (3) Assessing Information Literacy on a Regional…

The Center for the Study of Education Policy utilized several grants to develop principal preparation program tools to assist programs in the implementation of the new standards and requirements for the licensure of school principals and assistant principals. Also, with the help of another grant in partnership with several PK-12 school districts,…

This report provides findings from an evaluation of the newly designed Illinois High School to College Success Report (HS2CSR). The evaluation study examined the dissemination, usefulness, and impact on collaborative efforts of the new HS2CSR. Education stakeholders' suggestions for improving the report are also included. Recommendations to…

Six agencies in Illinois received 18 months of funding from the governor's office to develop effective and innovative strategies to recruit young children from traditionally underserved families into early childhood education (ECE) programs. The five agencies that provided families with immediate follow-up and some services shortly after…

This article explores a two-year professional development initiative with four state geographic alliances. Professional development planners, whether planning for a large- or small-scale initiative or one with unlimited or limited funding, will benefit from learning about this successful professional development activity and how the impact in the…

The Midwest Expansion of the Child-Parent Center Education Program (MCPC) is a pre-K to 3rd grade intervention program aimed at improving economically disadvantaged children's school success by enhancing continuity in instruction and increasing parental involvement. Opened in Chicago in the 1960s, this school reform model has undergone significant…

Social science methodologies of intervention programming for college and career readiness, particularly in regard to evaluation, must be situated within a larger context of racialized readiness for college and career. The policy context for this argument is a state-level evaluation of college and career readiness legislation in Illinois using…

Open Educational Resources (OER) offer unique new opportunities for educators to share quality learning resources, especially in an increasingly digital world. Forty-six states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), providing them with the unprecedented advantage of being able to share resources that are…

The Illinois Prevention Initiative provides grants to home-based and center-based programs to expand access to the Early Head Start (EHS) model as well as other birth to 3 models. The goal is to serve additional children birth to age 3 and help grantees increase program quality. The initiative to expand access to EHS and other models was…

The Illinois Child Care Collaboration Program promotes collaboration between child care and other early care and education providers, including Early Head Start (EHS), by creating policies to ease blending of funds to extend the day or year of existing services. While no funding is provided through the initiative, participating programs may take…

This study describes the results of a program developed to improve the transition outcomes of low-income minority youth with disabilities. The program relies on case management support to facilitate interagency collaboration. The participants included 164 graduates from special education and 26 youth from an equivalent comparison group. Two case…

This article provides an overview of the contexts, the key features, and the evidentiary data--the criteria regarding candidates to engage in administrative work--for five innovative principal preparation programs. Short case studies and cross-case analysis of the sample programs are used to provide thorough descriptions. The five programs in fact…

The Schools to Watch: School Transformation Network Project is a whole school reform model designed to improve the educational practices, experiences, and outcomes of low-performing middle-grades schools. Developed by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform, the four-year project was funded in 2010 by a U.S. Department of Education…

Making Connections was the Annie E. Casey Foundation's signature place-based, community-change initiative of the 2000s. It sought to build on previous work and launch an effort focused firmly on the framework of family strengthening. The Foundation started Making Connections in 22 places, focusing eventually on first 10, then seven sites. It…

Head Start, a U.S. federally funded program, prepares children for school through early childhood intervention in social-emotional and cognitive arenas. This article describes program evaluation survey results from the past 5 years of an 18-year collaboration between a university graduate art therapy program and 8 Head Start centers. Graduate art…