With the passage of "No Child Left Behind" in 2001, schools are expected to provide a standards-based curriculum for students to attain math and reading proficiency and demonstrate progress each year. "NCLB" requires more frequent student testing with publicly reported results in an effort to close the achievement gap and to inform parents,…

As a condition of receiving federal funding for elementary and secondary education programs, states each year provide vast amounts of data to Education. While the need for information that informs evaluation is important (particularly with the No Child Left Behind Act), Education's data gathering has heretofore presented some problems. It has been…

There is a common perception that technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is diversifying and expanding in terms of its supply and demand. Practitioners and policymakers often believe that educational systems are offering a wider array of programmes at different levels and in various fields of study. They also assume that these…

In recent years, researchers have argued that the shortage of highly qualified teachers in poor school districts may have less to do with attracting new teachers than with retaining them. To provide the scientific evidence that will support sound decisions about teacher induction, Mathematica is examining whether high-intensity teacher induction…

Education reforms such as "A Nation at Risk" and "Goals 2000" have come and gone. However, educators can be confident that the goal of student improvement shall not pass if the core mission is student learning. The true mission of learning has prompted educators to ponder the following questions: (1) How should each student to…

This two-year study explored the academic lives of three boys in a combined fifth-sixth grade classroom. As these case studies illustrate, viewing students' academic worlds from multiple perspectives can lead to more accurate, comprehensive evaluations and efficacious adaptations of students' learning environments. Richard Snow's aptitude theory…

This guide for Connecticut policymakers and advocacy groups provides instructions for conducting a community assessment--gathering and analyzing data on child well-being, using social indicators. The guide first details the steps for a community assessment: create goals and objectives, identify outcomes and indicators, develop a plan, find…

This book features a comprehensive review of the Math Sense series and is designed to help students gain the range of math skills they need to succeed in life, work, and on standardized tests; overcome math anxiety; discover math as interesting and purposeful; and develop good number sense. Topics covered in this book include whole numbers;…

This research examined the effects of a process of digital video editing used to create multimedia portfolio has on the quality of teacher candidates' critical reflections. The target population was Northwestern Oklahoma State University teacher candidates. Subjects were 22 student teachers in the fall 2001. Subjects were randomly assigned to one…

This report describes the findings of the third Educator Supply and Demand Research study in the State of Washington. The intent of these Washington studies is to provide data to inform and shape decisions and activities in the following ways: (1) Provide useful information for educational policymakers, including the legislature, the State Board…

The shift of public policymaking regarding children and families from the federal to the state and local levels has increased demand for measures of child well-being in states and communities. However, it is difficult to obtain reliable data about the well-being of rural children in states or communities. Of 61 key indicators of child well-being,…

The No Child Left Behind legislation has drawn increased attention to student data. Data are most useful in educational decision-making when the purpose extends beyond vertical accountability and toward school- and classroom-level decision-making that enhances the experience and achievement of students. This necessarily involves getting practical…

In a study of the effects of complainers' sex, age, perceived situational seriousness, and social class on the use of conversational strategies in their complaining behavior, 465 subjects of varying age, sex, and social class were observed and tape recorded in spontaneous conversation by 25 field workers. The field workers also filled out a…

The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 1999 Video Study is a follow-up and expansion of the TIMSS 1995 Video Study of mathematics teaching. Larger and more ambitious than the first, the 1999 study investigated eighth-grade science teaching as well as mathematics teaching, expanded the number of countries, and included…

This fourth annual study reports on state practices in 1999-2000 concerning reporting on the participation and performance of students with disabilities in statewide assessments. Unlike previous reports, the unit of analysis was the state assessments rather than all publicly available print reports. The report describes the assessment systems used…