This article offers an overview of the framework that Sampson County Public Schools (North Carolina) used to critically reflect on the current state of their middle grades schools. The article also highlights the changes that resulted from the district-wide analysis and the ways in which these changes led to a significant increase in the academic…

Until recently, states focused on ensuring the presence of a "highly qualified teacher" in every classroom. Under the 2001 reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), this title described a teacher holding at least a bachelor's degree and the appropriate state license and…

In this article, the author describes the "History as Story" project that has become important to the Annunciation Orthodox School (AOS) and the teachers in many ways. Patience, persistence, and quiet support of individual teachers' projects demonstrated the breadth of possibility if they would collaborate with the school librarian. Teachers do…

Because the transition to a knowledge-based economy requires an educated workforce, colleges and universities have made retention of students--particularly those who are academically underprepared--an institutional priority. College completion leads to economic and social advancement for students and is also critical to the nation's economic and…

Increasingly, teachers rely on computer software and networks to both enhance curriculum management and provide engaging learning opportunities in instruction. New software is enabling more frequent formative assessments to better focus day-to-day lessons on the unique needs of individual learners. Administrators use increasingly complex data…

In the Philadelphia Public Schools, a computer system called Data to Success has been created to assess student progress prior to end-of-year testing. The five-stage system allows a school to influence teacher decisions, identify student warning signs, and monitor important trend and analysis information throughout the school year. (MLH)

For some districts, the current obsession with data grows out of the need to comply with No Child Left Behind and additional accountability-related mandates. For others, it dates way back before the phrase "data-driven decision making" rolled so frequently off the tongues of educators. In either case, there is no denying that an integral…