Research Findings: This study examined how teacher--child conversations unfold during shared book reading in Head Start classrooms as well as the relations between that talk and children's vocabulary learning. Book reading experiences in 27 Head Start classrooms were videotaped and coded for teacher talk, child responses, teacher follow-up…

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) represent an unprecedented change in American education. As an increasingly integral part of the school accountability movement under No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top, responsibility for implementing CCSS rests largely with school leadership. One important factor in the success or failure of these…

North Carolina's Race to the Top (RttT) grant earmarked approximately $17.5 million to "increase the number of principals qualified to lead transformational change in low-performing schools in both rural and urban areas" (NCDPI, 2010, p.10). To accomplish this, the state established three Regional Leadership Academies (RLAs)…

On October 14, 2016, the National Center for Special Education Research (NCSER) and the National Center for Education Research (NCER) in the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) convened a group of experts to gain insights and advice on how best to support the advancement of evidence beyond an efficacy study. Discussion followed five topics of…

As the cornerstone of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrition assistance programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) plays a vital role in helping to improve nutrition in the nation among low-income individuals. In an average month in fiscal year 2014, SNAP provided benefits to 46.5 million people living in…

One goal of standards-based accountability is to align educator behaviors with the improvement of student achievement. Yet, prior work suggests that standards-based accountability has negatively affected some educational processes, such as narrowing the curriculum and reducing instructional quality. Panel data from middle grades math teachers…

This "National Profile" serves as a helpful resource document on the basics of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This information is more important than ever, as data from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) show that the number of students applying for federal financial…

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 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…

"Kids Share 2014: Report on Federal Expenditures on Children through 2013," an eighth annual report, looks comprehensively at federal spending and tax expenditures on children. Total federal expenditures on children were up from 2012, but below spending in 2010. Broader budgetary forces will continue to restrict spending on children over…

The Race to the Top Assessment program was authorized as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). In September 2010, the U.S. Department of Education (Department) awarded competitive, four-year grants to two consortia of states, the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) and the Smarter…

Low-income children, particularly those with special needs, may have limited access to high-quality early care experiences. Childcare subsidies are intended to increase families' access to quality care, but little is known about subsidy use by children with special needs. Using a nationally representative sample of 4,000 young children who…

The aim of the current study is to assess school leaders' perceptions and practices in the context of a new policy that emphasizes teacher evaluation. The study draws from survey data of 606 K-12 school leaders in the USA in a state implementing a new teacher evaluation model under Race to the Top. Findings illustrate that school leaders spent…

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) has been criticized for encouraging schools to neglect students whose performance exceeds the proficiency threshold or lies so far below it that there is no reasonable prospect of closing the gap during the current year. We examine this hypothesis using longitudinal data from 2002-03 through 2005-06. Our…

A key component of effective early childhood programs is collaborative relationships between schools, families, and the community (Fiese, Eckert, & Spagnola, 2005). One of these early childhood programs, Head Start, stands out among the others in its efforts to work with children, families, and communities to promote parental involvement. Some…