Many investigators have documented the need for valid and credible program evaluation research of teacher professional development programs. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive program evaluation of the Lincoln School District's Teacher Collaboration Time (TCT) staff development program. The study questions…

Despite the historical mission of career academies to expand opportunities and engagement of minority students, particularly African American students, more recent curricular changes in the career academy model have increased the rigor of these types of programs. These new initiatives have undoubtedly resulted in a demographic shift with more…

Dropping out of high school is not an event, but rather a process that involves a number of complex and interrelated factors. For example, 50% of eventual dropouts can be identified as early as the sixth grade and 80% by the ninth, based on observable academic, attendance, and behavior indicators. Furthermore, the first marking period of the ninth…

Income inequality has been rising in Britain for two decades and wealth is also more unequally distributed now than when New Labour first came to power. Various factors have contributed to this, including education which, according to the PISA 2006 data, has more unequal outcomes in the UK than in all but 2 of the 29 tested countries. Comparative…

Induction programs address the chronic and severe teacher shortages by supporting new teachers during the critical attrition time period. This study examines the state policies of all 50 states and the District of Columbia to determine (1) the existence of state induction and mentoring statues, rules, and programs; (2) the content and range of…

The authors conducted a third-party study of the student achievement effects of Struggling Schools, a user-generated approach to Comprehensive School Reform (CSR). The design was a quasiexperimental, pre-post matched sample (N = 180) with school as unit of analysis, drawing on 3 years of achievement data from standardized external assessments.…

The Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program was federally- and state-funded and provided three-year grants to schools to design and implement performance pay plans from the 2005-06 to 2007-08 school years. GEEG was implemented in 99 high poverty, high performing Texas public schools. Performance pay for teachers entered Texas state…

This "Fifth-Year Report" from the Evaluation of the Comprehensive School Reform Program Implementation and Outcomes (ECSRIO) is the final report on the outcomes of the federally funded Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) program. It presents findings about the relationship between participation in the U.S. Department of Education's…

The present study describes students flows before and after the latest reform of upper secondary school in which a third year as well as a new grading system and new entrance requirements were introduced in vocational programmes. Published and unpublished data on student flows through upper secondary school before and after implementation of the…

British secondary schools moved from a system of extensive and early selection and tracking in secondary schools to one with comprehensive schools during the 1960s and 70s. Before the reform, students would take an exam at age eleven, which determined whether they would attend an academically oriented grammar school or a lower level secondary…

The author was a member of the national advisory group designated to advise England's Secretary of State on results of the comparative study of selective and nonselective secondary schools. Here he reviews this study, published in 1980 as "Progress in Secondary Schools" and discusses some criticisms of it. (Editor/SJL)

This paper arises out of a longitudinal study of students in eight Scottish comprehensive schools. The schools are shown to have varied considerably in their "O" grade test results, and the differences appear to be largely but not entirely attributable to differences in the social class background of their students. (Author/SJL)

The Comprehensive School Reform (CSR) Program was established as a demonstration program in 1998 and authorized as a full program in 2002 as part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). It is one approach to help low-performing K-12 public schools meet state performance standards. CSR emphasizes two major concepts: mandating that school reform…

The data are clear: Too many students are not doing well in school. Too many are experiencing interfering barriers, most of which are not internal dysfunctions but are associated with neighborhood, family, school, and peer factors. If the situation is to change, schools must play a greater role in providing supports for students experiencing…

Presents an assessment of the relative performance of public and private schools, based on data from the Educational Testing Service. Challenges the Coleman Report's assertion that private schools more closely approximate the common school egalitarian ideal and sever the connections between background characteristics and measured achievement. (SA)