Analyzing mathematics and reading achievement outcomes from a district-level random assignment study fielded in over 500 schools within 59 school districts and seven states, the authors estimate the 1-year impacts of a data-driven reform initiative implemented by the Johns Hopkins Center for Data-Driven Reform in Education (CDDRE). CDDRE…

This annual newsletter contains updates on the latest Community College Research Center (CCRC) research, new publications and details of upcoming presentations at major conferences. The feature article in this issue, "Improving Community College Assessment and Placement," by Thomas Bailey, discusses how the process of assessment and…

Evidence from Project STAR has suggested a considerable advantage of being in small classes in early grades. However, the extra benefits of additional years in small classes have not been discussed in detail. The present study examined the additional effects of being in small classes for more than 1 year. We find that once previous grade…

Despite the popularity of performance funding among policymakers and policy advocates, only half of all states have ever created a performance funding system for higher education. State performance funding systems have also been surprisingly unstable. Nearly half of those states that established performance funding systems for higher education…

The State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Tennessee's annual Race to the Top implementation. The Year 4 report for Phase 2 grantees highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2013 through September 2014. Given that Delaware and…

In the fall of 2009, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded a three-year project proposed by the International Baccalaureate (IB) to demonstrate the feasibility of increasing the participation of minority students and students in poverty in its Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma Programme (DP) in selected school districts in the…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Tennessee's annual Race to the Top implementation. The Year 3 report for Phase 1 and 2 grantees highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2012 through September 2013. In Year 3,…

This State-specific summary report serves as an assessment of Tennessee's second year of Race to the Top implementation. The report highlights successes and accomplishments, identifies challenges, and provides lessons learned from implementation from approximately September 2011 through September 2012. During Year 2, the Tennessee Department of…

All students, including students with disabilities, must be included in state accountability systems as required by law. In April 2007, federal regulations provided states the flexibility to offer another assessment option--an Alternate Assessment based on Modified Achievement Standards (AA-MAS) for some students with disabilities. The AA-MAS is…

In recent years, propensity score matching (PSM) has gained attention as a potential method for estimating the impact of public policy programs in the absence of experimental evaluations. In this study, we evaluate the usefulness of PSM for estimating the impact of a program change in an educational context (Tennessee's Student Teacher Achievement…

Results of the Tennessee Basic Skills Test administered statewide to more than 64,000 grade 8 pupils in April 1980 demonstrate that achievement of pupils with kindergarten background is superior to that of non-kindergarten pupils in mathematics, spelling, language, and reading. The effect was greater for mathematics and language than for reading…

A statewide career education needs assessment was done in Tennessee by surveying all superintendents and samples of principals, teachers, and community leaders. State employment security data and Career Maturity Inventory (CMI) scores for a sample of the state's ninth graders were secondary information sources. The primary conclusion was that the…

Based on the increased public pressure of the governors in Missouri, Tennessee, and Kentucky for higher education to make significant strides in "outcomes assessment," a national survey of the 361 colleges and universities identified in the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication directory as having undergraduate…

Covering the period of 1973-76, the Tennessee Exemplary Project in Career Education (TEPCE) was designed to develop a comprehensive career education program, in the Greeneville and Greene County, Tennessee, schools. Objectives for each level in the educational program were established for the awareness (K-5), exploration (6-8), preparation (9-12),…

Evaluation questionnaires were administered to more than 92 percent of the professional staff associated with the Knox County Extended School Year (ESY) Program during the summer and fall of 1974 and to more than half of the students enrolled in the summer quinmester, along with a random sample of 10 percent of the students enrolled in October…