"The Every Student Succeeds Act" encourages educators to use school improvement strategies backed by rigorous research. This snapshot, based on national surveys administered in 2018, describes what guidance states provided on improvement strategies and how districts selected such strategies in lowest-performing schools. Most states…

The 2012 edition of the "Digest of Education Statistics" is the 48th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The "Digest" has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977-78, 1983-84, and 1985-86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field…

The annual What's Hot, What's Not in Literacy Survey has helped to define the literacy agenda and highlight topics receiving attention in the field over the last 15 years. The ebb and flow of the field of literacy often shifts with changes in legislation, policy, and curricula. As a result, what was formerly hot may subsequently receive less…

The 2001 No Child Left Behind Act requires local education agencies to publicly disseminate school performance data. In response, districts and state departments of education have created "school report cards" that vary widely. While data dissemination policies can improve institutional legitimacy and ensure ongoing support, we suggest…

Purpose and Method of Study. The primary purpose of this research was to explore the beliefs of Illinois public school superintendents concerning the ability of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to enable school reform. A secondary purpose of this study was to describe the extent to which those beliefs varied based on the size of school district, type…

School districts are charged with the task of improving standardized test scores and closing the gaps between specific groups of students. Numerous programs, school improvement strategies, changes in instruction and leadership have been implemented to close the gap. Data are becoming more abundant at the state, district, and school levels. Many…

Traditional education (TE) largely uses a standardized (SbE) approach while alternatives (nTE) tend to more of a competency (CbE), or student-centered approach. This comparative analysis examines essential aspects of such pedagogies in determining the effectiveness of schooling systems in meeting the Whole Child Initiative (Souza, 1999; Carter et…

The pressure to meet the demands of "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB) Act coupled with poor results by secondary students on national assessments in mathematics have forced school principals to develop skill sets in the use of data in efforts to increase student performance on standardized assessments. The effective use of data by school…

Fifty-two exceptional education pre-service teachers getting a K-6 endorsement were involved in this study that investigated the changes in levels of mathematics anxiety before and after a mathematics methods course for education majors. The changes were measured with respect to the use of manipulatives and other activities to make mathematics…

Prior to the mandatory testing and reporting required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), school improvement efforts were shown to lack coherence (Newman, Smith, Allensworth, & Bryk, 2001) and often included conflicting programs (Hatch, 2002). Part of the theory of performance-based accountability in general, and NCLB in particular, was…

Data analysis may be a way to help bridge the gap between what students learn in school and their everyday experiences and concerns and thus to enrich their school experiences. This link is important when dealing with data analysis because "data are not just numbers, they are numbers with a context... in data analysis, context provides…

The goal of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) is for all students to become proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. According to current research, no states are on track to achieve this goal set forth by NCLB (Rebel & Wolff, 2008). As a result of schools failing to meet their academic targets on standardized tests, the United…

This article presents findings from an investigation of the overall effectiveness of Michigan's Freedom to Learn (FTL) One-to-One initiative. The major goal of the FTL initiative was to help students to gain 21st century knowledge and skills while increasing their learning and achievement through the integration of over 20,000 laptop computers…

Educators are increasingly pressured to raise standardized test scores. Test-focused school leaders, however, may neglect school climate factors associated with positive student development and increased student achievement. The California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) and its Resilience Youth Development Module (RYDM) represent a research-based,…

Background: Accountability demands are increasingly pushing school leaders to explore more data and do more sophisticated analyses. Data-driven decision making (DDDM) has become an emerging field of practice for school leadership and a central focus of education policy and practice. Purpose: This study examined principals' DDDM practices and…