This report is a followup to an initiative to establish a central website to collect data from States on the National School Lunch and the School Breakfast Programs. A central website could be used by researchers and program administrators to compare and analyze data across State and local areas for participation trends in local school district…

The U.S. Department of Education recently held a competition for grants to support states in their efforts to build longitudinal data systems to track and analyze student and school performance. The Value-Added Research Center (VARC) at the Wisconsin Center for Education Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison, proposed a Tri-State Partnership…

This book is a guide to the development of mathematical talent in students in grades K through 8. The first chapter is on developing mathematical promise and considers characteristics of students who are mathematically promising, the goals of mathematics instruction, how to find and/or create good problems, models for increasing the numbers and…

The relationship between mathematicians and researchers in mathematics education has often been fragile. Yet it is crucial. We conducted a series of themed Focus Group interviews with mathematicians from six UK universities. Pre-distributed samples of mathematical problems, typical written student responses, observation protocols, interview…

In this report we present the methodology used in a study that investigated the tacit-explicit dynamic in learning processes. We have analyzed an episode related to a discussion about the difference between plane figures and spatial figures promoted by the teacher in her mathematics classroom (the students are aged 11 to 12). The data analysis was…

This report is the last in a three-part series examining the relationship between school resources and student achievement in California. The central focus in all three reports has been the standards-based reform of California public schools. Between 1995 and 1998, California introduced academic content standards specifying what students should…

During the 2002-2003 academic year, six roundtables were held to explore uses of the data from the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) for improvement of student learning. This paper describes the roundtable discussion held in Kentucky in December 2002. This roundtable focused on ways the NSSE can contribute to state-level efforts on…

This issue of Northwest Education explores some of the ways that the region is changing territory: radically reengineering large comprehensive high schools into smaller, more personalized academies and learning communities; encouraging all students--not just an elite few--to take advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses; tying…

This collection of activities is intended to enhance the teaching of college algebra through the use of modeling. The problems use real data and involve the representation and interpretation of the data. The concepts addressed include rates of change, linear and quadratic regression, and functions. The collection consists of eight problems, four…

The fundamental question in creating coding categories for an open-ended questionnaire is how to transform a complete transcript into manageable pieces of data. This paper describes the methodology involved in coding qualitative data derived from an evaluation of the Cognitive Approaches to School Leadership (CASL) program. The first task was to…

This study examines the magnitude of the difference between estimates from the 1990-91 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) using a Common Core of Data (CCD) definition of a school and a Quality Education Data (QED) definition of a school. The 1990-91 SASS sample design allows for the development of school and administrator estimates using either…

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) collects data in the form of repeated, discrete measures (test items) with hierarchical structure for both measures and subjects, that is complex by any standard. This complexity has been managed through a "divide and conquer" approach of isolating and evaluating sources of…

This report describes the efforts of the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL) during the last several years to respond to direct requests from educational stakeholders to help integrate data into their decision-making processes related to school improvement. In some cases, NCREL cooperated in the development of educational…

This report describes and compares different methods used to calculate and report dropout rates; discusses advantages and disadvantages of each method; explains what is known about dropout students; and outlines actions states are taking to reduce dropout rates. Data are presented on whether dropout rates are lower now than in the 1980s in…

This report provides a performance and financial evaluation of Wisconsin's charter schools. It examines charter schools that were open during the 1997-98 school year, and it includes their educational programs, administrative policies, and enrollments. The report also details program expenditures, student performance, legal issues, and the effects…