This is the second in a series of policy notes and related publications exploring prospects for developing indicators of teaching quality. The first examined federal databases that include information about teachers, demonstrating that almost none of the measures in these datasets provides indication of teaching quality. This policy note takes the…

Head Start is a national program that promotes school readiness by enhancing the social and cognitive development of children through the provision of educational, health, nutritional, social, and other services to enrolled children and families. The Head Start program provides comprehensive child development services to economically disadvantaged…

This report includes key information on the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2014-2018 (FACES 2014) study design and a set of data tables presents descriptive statistics for the characteristics of classrooms, teachers, centers, and programs serving Head Start children and families in spring 2015. Data are drawn from the spring 2015…

How good does an early childhood program have to be in order to achieve school readiness outcomes for children? This is known as the "threshold question," and policy makers and others have wanted an answer to this question since the onset of public investments in early care and education (ECE) programs. With expansion of Head Start and…

In 2005, the governors of all 50 states made an unprecedented commitment to voluntarily implement a common, more reliable formula for calculating their state's high school graduation rate by signing the Graduation Counts Compact of the National Governors Association (NGA). Five years later, progress is steady. Twenty-six states say they have…

Authentic assessment is a growing alternative to conventional testing. This research-to-practice article describes a framework for implementing authentic assessment. The R-E-A-L framework shows how roles, equipment, assessment tools, and location can be incorporated into early childhood practices.

The inclusion of young children with disabilities has remained a function of the Head Start program since its inception in the 1960s when the United States Congress mandated that children with disabilities comprise 10% of the Head Start enrollment (Zigler & Styfco, 2000). Standardized, norm-referenced tests used to identify children with…

Under the No Child Left Behind Act, states have been required to set minimum proficiency standards that virtually all students must meet by 2014. Sanctions of increasing severity are to be applied to schools that fail to meet interim targets, known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The authors examine the effect of this legislation using…

The evaluation by Abt Associates, Inc., of the Follow Through program, an extension of Head Start designed to improve primary education for disadvantaged children, created a controversy about the program and its assessment, which is discussed in this article. The authors see serious flaws in the evaluation design and interpretation. (MF)

This report examines trends in student achievement for public school students using both state assessment data and the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Recent trends on state assessments from 2004-05 through 2006-07 are examined in 30 states that had consistent assessments in place over this period and longer-term trends on the…

This report is a descriptive evaluation of the five pilot sites of Project TREND (Targeting Resources on the Educational Needs of the Disadvantaged). The five Local Education Agency (LEA) pilot sites are the educational systems of: (1) Akron, Ohio; (2) El Paso, Texas; (3) Newark, New Jersey; (4) Portland, Oregon; and, (5) San Jose (Unified),…

This volume compiles technical reports of Title I Elementary and Secondary Education Act project evaluations conducted during the 1976-77 academic year in the school district of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The reports include rationale, expected outcomes, mode of operation, previous evaluative findings, current implementation, and attainment of…

The Advisory Committee on Testing in Chapter 1 evaluated current testing policies in the Chapter 1 program and offered the U.S. Department of Education advice on improvements and alternatives to the current system. After analyzing existing testing procedures, the committee concluded that Chapter 1's overreliance on a single testing method,…

Abstracts of Title I Elementary and Secondary Education Act project evaluations conducted during the 1976-77 academic year in the school district of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania are compiled in this volume. Information concerning current management information, observed activities, attainment of objectives, and program impact is provided for each…

This book aims to provide a comprehensive history and analysis of the operation and evolution of Project Head Start. The volume consists of 23 original articles covering program history, the preschool education and developmental components of Head Start, and Head Start program development and evaluation. In Part One, the historical roots of Head…