The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), like other state education agencies, recognizes that a key lever to turning around low-performing schools is the quality of instruction and thus embeds a schoolwide instructional quality measure into its monitoring process. Massachusetts' schoolwide quality instruction…

This paper analyzes the lasting impacts of a project aimed at teaching children how to read and write at age 6. Using a Difference-in-Differences methodology, the results show that it is not enough to get children literate at age 6 to secure lasting effects; the instruction process is also an important factor: Only pupils exposed to the Phonics…

The purpose of this report is to summarize the key elements of school and district level Performance Index scores (PI scores) for the 50 states and the District of Columbia (D.C.) across the United States. PI scores are partial or overall summative ratings of schools or districts currently used across US state accountability systems to assess…

Schools to Watch (STW) is an initiative of the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform that identifies high performing middle grades schools based on 37 criteria. Initiated in 2003, California's program, Schools to Watch--Taking Center Stage (STW-TCS), has designated 36 schools. This report describes STW nationally and in California,…

How state educational authorities in Kentucky use statewide test data to rank the state's 178 school districts was studied, using data from the "Kentucky Essential Skills Test: Statewide Testing Results" (1987). The methods used, means of refining those methods, the fairness/accuracy/validity of resulting interpretations, and problems…

The practices, policies, and procedures used in all 50 states for evaluating school and school district effectiveness were examined, with a focus on the study of methodological and measurement issues in the collection, analysis, and reporting of information for accountability purposes. Data were collected through computerized literature and Web…

The Connecticut School Effectiveness Program, a statewide voluntary school improvement program, is described in this report. Information is presented on program activities and services, accomplishments, and areas of concern. The first section discusses the system used to determine individual schools' eligibility for state technical assistance at…

This study was conducted to measure value added school effects in a Northwest urban public school district using a two-level hierarchical model. The model consisted of two student-level variables (prior achievement and eligibility for federal free or reduced-price lunch) and three school variables (percentage of students eligible for free or…

In 1991, the Florida State Legislature established an accountability process for the state's community college system to foster institutional self-examination and improvement. In 1995, the Legislature undertook a review of the process to determine the extent that it had been implemented, the usefulness of specific documents, and the level of…

This paper describes second-year outcomes in three New Jersey schools that participated in the Effective Demonstration Schools Project, a grants program that encouraged school-based improvement. The purpose of the three-year grants, awarded during the 1985-86 school year, was to improve students' basic skills performance through the application of…

This report examines the implementation of standards-based reform in Washington and whether the reform strategy has worked. The report is based on a survey of two statewide samples of elementary schools at which students had taken the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) fourth-grade test in 1997 and 1998. The first was a sample of 30…

During the spring of 1987, the National Conference of State Legislatures awarded the Nebraska Legislature a cost-sharing award to study local school evaluation processes. Embodied in Legislative Resolution 181, which has the purpose of studying school evaluation procedures, the study attempts to provide legislators, educators, local school…

In the Connecticut School Effectiveness Project, data are collected on seven characteristics of effective schooling: safe and orderly environment, clear school mission, instructional leadership, high expectations, opportunity to learn and time on task, frequent monitoring of student progress, and home-school relations. These data are collected…

Commonly employed measures of school quality can lead to very misleading results. Especially at the state level, nonrepresentative data such as aggregate Scholastic Aptitude Test scores provide very biased measures of school performance. Far superior are direct estimates of achievement growth. (SK)

In an effort to expand research on effective and ineffective schools into the area of student attitudes, this study examined the cognitive, as well as the noncognitive scores for two groups of Pennsylvania schools that had been identified as effective or ineffective. Cognitive and noncognitive data were available for all 500 school districts for…