This college student retention practices report identifies which practices, strategies, and actions campus officials rate as the most effective for student success at four-year public and private institutions and two-year public colleges. This report includes: (1) 13 population-specific programs for student success and completion; (2) 13 online…

Through our national thematic reports HM Inspectors of Education share their professional view on particular aspects of education. This report focuses on sharing the key features which, when taken together, make the greatest difference to using assessment effectively to improve learning and teaching and in turn, outcomes for children and young…

An online Moodle Workshop was evaluated for peer assessment effectiveness. A quasiexperiment was designed using a Seminar in Professionalism course taught in face-to-face mode to undergraduate students across two campuses. The first goal was to determine if Moodle Workshop awarded a fair peer grader grade. The second objective was to estimate if…

This mixed methods study explored the nature of a benchmark assessment program and how well the benchmark assessments predicted End-of-Grade (EOG) and End-of-Course (EOC) test scores in an American Indian school district. Five major themes were identified and used to develop a Dimensions of Benchmark Assessment Program Effectiveness model:…

Foundations across the country engage in grantmaking to eliminate the opportunity and achievement gaps in K-12 public schools. Many of the strategies and investments that funders have supported in recent years focus not only on "more time" but also on "better use of time" in schools. This better use of time centers on outcomes…

This article describes the use of benchmarking in universities in the Czech Republic and academics' experiences with it. It is based on research conducted among academics from economics schools in Czech public and private universities. The results identified several issues regarding the utilisation and understanding of benchmarking in the Czech…

The continued growth of online programs in higher education has resulted in concerns about how institutions monitor the quality of their online programs. These concerns indicate a need for a process by which online programs may be evaluated and compared. They provided the impetus for this study, the goals of which were to identify quality…

This paper presents the results of an investigation into the attitudes of School Administrators to the relationship between formal school registration and school improvement. It concerns a mandatory inspection-type registration process for all Non-Government Schools in Western Australia. Part of the aim of this registration process was to help…

Throughout the world standards have been developed for teaching in particular key learning areas. These standards also present benchmarks that can assist to measure and compare results from one year to the next. There appears to be no benchmarks for mentoring. An instrument devised to measure mentees' perceptions of their mentoring in primary…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of Whole Faculty Study Groups on student achievement and teacher practices in grades K-3 of a Nebraska school district. Whole-Faculty Study Groups (WFSG) are a type of professional learning community (PLC). Using a mixed method approach, both K-3 student scores on Dynamic Indicators of Basic…

The two-fold purpose of the study was to determine whether or not the Arkansas Leadership Academy's Master Principal Institute's (MPI) five curriculum content standards were aligned with the literature of effective educational leadership practices, and to ascertain if there were significant relationships among the principals' leadership practices…

The new "Weighted Student Formula Yearbook 2009" from the Reason Foundation provides a simple framework for touting the successes of states and urban school districts that grant greater fiscal autonomy to schools. The report defines the Weighted Student Formula (WSF) reform extremely broadly, presenting a variety of reforms under the WSF umbrella.…

This report presents findings stemming from the first-year evaluation of the Governor's Educator Excellence Grant (GEEG) program, one of several statewide performance incentive programs in Texas. In the fall of 2006, the GEEG program made available non-competitive, three-year grants to 99 schools ranging from $60,000 to $220,000 per year. Grants…

Each year, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement ("CCSSE") presents the results of its annual survey. These survey results help community colleges assess their educational practices so they can improve student outcomes in one of the most challenging and least understood sectors of American higher education. There are several…

Each year, the Community College Survey of Student Engagement ("CCSSE") presents the results of its annual survey. These survey results help community colleges assess their educational practices so they can improve student outcomes in one of the most challenging and least understood sectors of American higher education. There are several…