Six years after passage of No Child Left Behind and midway to the nation's goal of having students on grade level or better in reading and math by 2014, more data than ever before has been collected about the academic performance of American students and schools. Information in this brochure charts student demographics, achievement-to-date and…

In the fall of 2007, Education Resource Strategies (ERS) was invited by Philadelphia's School Reform Commission to conduct a Strategic Professional Development Review for the School District of Philadelphia (SDP). ERS is a nonprofit organization that is nationally recognized for its extensive work in partnering with urban school districts to make…

Improving high school graduation rates has in recent years become a growing concern to state and local policymakers for a number of reasons: the reduced economic opportunities and increased social costs for individuals without a high school diploma; the economic consequences, such as reduced tax revenues; and the need for more college graduates.…

The Pittsburgh Public School district is one of many urban school systems across the country that is struggling to boost student performance and regain the respect of its community. Achievement gaps are wide; student achievement is low; and public confidence is fragile. To begin addressing these issues, the Council of the Great City Schools…

By the time they enter kindergarten, many low-income children are already behind their peers from more advantaged backgrounds. During early childhood, low-income children face a number of risk factors that threaten healthy development and learning, including low birth weight, stunted growth, obesity, and lead poisoning--all of which are associated…

This paper culminates three years of research on the use of various teaching technologies and methods by the faculty of Adelphi University School of Business in Garden City, New York. Previously, papers on this research were published on the development of the research instrument, the administration and data analysis for full time faculty (Part…

There has been considerable interest recently in the teaching of skills to undergraduate students. However, existing methods for collating data on how much, where and when students are taught and assessed skills have often been shown to be time-consuming and ineffective. Here, we outline an electronic research skills audit tool that has been…

The Asian Tsunami struck Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004. Sri Lanka was the second worst affected country after Indonesia, and this natural disaster killed in excess of 35,000 people and displaced over 1 million. The article explores the Tsunami Disaster Management Program developed by one Sri Lankan university: the Postgraduate Institute of…

In many schools and districts, teacher evaluation is poorly conducted, or even disparaged or ignored altogether. This handbook advocates a new approach to teacher evaluation--a cooperative effort undertaken by a group of professionals. Evaluation can reassure teachers that they are doing good and valued jobs, give security and status to…

The shift away from norm-referenced tests to authentic samples of child performance, such as writing and drawing samples, poses serious problems in organizing and analyzing assessments of child performance. This paper proposes a process utilizing the large-scale storage capacity of centralized mainframe computers and the flexibility and efficiency…

This third edition of "Education at a Glance" presents a set of 49 international education indicators covering the 1991-92 school year. The publication of this set of indicators marks the completion of efforts begun in 1992 to develop a system for collecting, screening, and processing education statistics that would bring together…

This handbook is designed to help educators understand program evaluation processes so that they will be able to carry out evaluation tasks and talk knowledgeably to evaluators about what they want to find out from a program evaluation. The book reviews the purposes and uses of evaluation to help the reader identify the scope and direction of the…

The United States must find ways to improve the quality of education for all its citizens, particularly those young people who are most at risk of failure. This document, the second of three volumes, contains detailed case-study data from 18 schools located across the United States. The case studies were conducted as part of a study that…

This paper describes empirically tested strategies for containing mailed questionnaire costs while maximizing survey response rates. Survey focus, critical to gaining respondent interest and completion of the survey instrument, should be selected on the basis of the theme of the study in order to reduce survey length and yield more in-depth and…

The Board on International Comparative Studies in Education monitors U.S. participation in cross-national comparative studies in education and provides advice to sponsoring agencies. This document results from the Board's consideration of studies that would enrich plans for international studies. What the Board believes to be the value of…