While working in the Social and Emotional Support Services (SESS) for Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland (MCPS), the author initiated a project to collect data on services to students with emotional needs. During the 2016-2017 school year, MCPS was the 17th largest school district in the country with nearly 160,000 students speaking 150…

K-12 education standards in the U.S. require all students to read complex texts across many subject areas. The "Language Muse™ Activity Palette" is a web-based language-instruction application that uses NLP algorithms and lexical resources to automatically generate language activities and support English language learners' content…

This discussion paper explores the possibilities and risks that data linkage presents for the vocational education and training (VET) sector. Along with a broad overview of the nature of data linkage, it highlights possible applications for data linkage in the VET sector and examines the key challenges associated with its use. A number of case…

The purpose of this study was to set future directions of the Cyber Home Learning System in Korea based on its current status. The Cyber Home Learning System has been designed and used by K-12 students to study voluntarily at home using online lessons. The development process of the Cyber Home Learning System was composed of the following four…

In this article, researchers Dick M. Carpenter II and Grant Clayton explore common enrollment systems (CESs)--how they work and what school leaders can learn from districts that have implemented CESs. Denver, New Orleans, and Newark (New Jersey) have rolled out this centralized enrollment process for all district-run and charter schools in their…

This report investigates factors that drive teachers to embrace or challenge the use of products and services designed to support improvements in practice. Key elements of the study include: (1) Technology-based resources studied include those designed for video observations, peer feedback and collaboration, online professional learning, and…

This quantitative study investigated the differences in perceptions and attitudes toward technology integration of K-12 public school teachers in rural, suburban, and urban environments. The purpose was to examine the relationship between frequency of use and perception of effectiveness of web-based learning tools based upon the type of school…

In order to meet the needs of today's knowledge economy, education needs to move beyond the industrial age approach of treating all learners as if they are the same and adopt a learner-centered model of education suitable for the information age. To support this model, a new and transformative technology is needed that focuses on mastery and…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation extended grants to three educational organizations working to develop or enhance competency-based approaches in large, urbanized school systems. The grant initiative, called Project Mastery, funded the development of technology-enhanced tools, including curriculum materials and online learning…

In 2011, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation created the Project Mastery grant program to support competency-based education initiatives in large school systems that serve a high proportion of disadvantaged youth. Competency-based education meets students where they are academically, provides students with opportunities for choice, and awards…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA or the Recovery Act) of 2009 provided an unprecedented level of funding for K-12 education. The program created a "historic opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of jobs, support states and school districts, and advance reforms and improvements that will create long-lasting results for our…

Like seemingly everyone else connected to K12 education, vendors that offer student information systems are being called upon to do more with less. Where past generations of these systems focused on nuts and bolts such as time, attendance and behavioral issues, the latest generation has created--and drawn inspiration from--districts' desires for…

In December 2008, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and in partnership with the Data Quality Campaign, the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) hosted a meeting of the West's key leaders in building state-wide integrated longitudinal data systems. Such data systems are essential to developing a better…

This paper describes a study of success factors in high enrollment courses in a K-12 virtual school learning environment. The influence of variables: time student spent in the learning management system (LMS), number of times logged into the LMS, teacher comment, participation in free or reduced lunch programs, student status in the virtual school…

This article reports a study on using data mining to predict K-12 students' competence levels on test items related to energy. Data sources are the 1995 Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), 1999 TIMSS-Repeat, 2003 Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), and the National Assessment of Educational…