The West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE) Office of Federal Programs conducted a routine monitoring of Upshur County in December of 2022. This resulted in a report of findings which was completed February 10, 2023. Per Federal Program protocols, counties are provided 60 days to respond to findings; establishing Upshur County's deadline for…

This memo from James F. Lane Senior Advisor, Office of the Secretary, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, announces the supplemental grant awards under the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act and provides recommendations for how to support evidence-based practices intended to increase attendance and engagement of students in the middle…

This is the executive summary for a full report. In 2019-2020, the program's third federally funded year, GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) Austin served a cohort of 8th grade students (n = 2,546) across 11 middle schools. Nearly all GEAR UP students received support services relevant to college…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The study measures the impact of pay-for-performance bonuses as part of a comprehensive compensation system within a large, multisite random assignment study design. The treatment schools were to…

The language that students and teachers use to describe what they like best about M. O. Ramay Junior High School is strikingly similar. Both groups talk at length about how they are treated with respect and given freedom. Teachers describe the freedom to teach and students describe the freedom to be an individual. Both groups quickly add that with…

Sometimes partners find one another when they're not looking. In South Carolina, education leaders at Georgetown County School District were seeking only information when they attended a workshop sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Education. The two-day learning experience, provided by SEDL, a nonprofit organization based in Austin,…

The Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) provides grants to support performance-based compensation systems for teachers and principals in high-need schools. The study measures the impact of pay-for-performance bonuses as part of a comprehensive compensation system within a large, multisite random assignment study design. The treatment schools were to…

In recent years, schools have been forced by rising costs and shrinking budgets to stretch their resources further than ever before in order to meet the educational needs of today's students. Energy costs continue to rise, placing unprecedented stress on limited funds. In fact, K-12 schools in the United States spend more than $8 billion every…

Ravenswood (WV) Middle School is located on a quiet residential street, adjacent to the high school, the town library, and a community park in the small town of historic Ravenswood, West Virginia. The unassuming exterior of the building belies the school's record of continued academic growth and achievement and the warm, caring environment that it…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Kline Introduces State and Local Funding Flexibility Act: Bill Would Allow States and School Districts to Move Money…

In the wake of the beating death of a Chicago high school student in September, law-enforcement officials and educators have called for renewed efforts to stem youth violence. But they also acknowledged that money and programs alone won't solve the problem. U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder and Secretary of Education Arne Duncan traveled to…

The Talent Search (TS) program is one of the federal TRIO programs, a group of eight outreach programs funded by the U.S. Department of Education that are designed to support and assist students from disadvantaged backgrounds to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to attainment of a postbaccalaureate degree. (Contains 6…

This article discusses how the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) accountability mechanism of No Child Left Behind makes use of supposedly objective standardized test scores to describe schools in a certain way when the very same results could serve to draw very different conclusions. Examining the proficiency scores of students from a specific middle…

Forsyth County Schools has recently finished a very successful year. In 2008, all 16 elementary schools and eight middle schools made Adequate Yearly Progress. In spite of the fact that Georgia administered new, more rigorous math assessments for grades 3-5 and grade 8, the district had an average of 22% more students passing the assessments than…

Each year, Austin Independent School District Department of Research and Evaluation (DRE) staff develop a plan of work to describe the scope of work for the coming year. The plans that make up this document identify programs to be evaluated and services to be provided by DRE staff and provide the blueprints for evaluation that staff will follow…