"Building Institutional Capacity for Data-Informed Decision Making" is the third installment of the Cutting Edge series, which aims to help colleges engage faculty, scale successful interventions, and create a strong culture of evidence through use of data to strengthen their institutional change and student success efforts. Though the…

In 2009, Excelencia in Education launched the Ensuring America's Future initiative to inform, organize, and engage leaders in a tactical plan to increase Latino college completion. This initiative included the release of a benchmarking guide for projections of degree attainment disaggregated by race/ethnicity that offered multiple metrics to track…

The purpose of the "State of the Literacy and Essential Skills Field" report is to provide an environmental scan showing the state of Literacy and Essential Skills (L/ES) across the country, from the perspective of the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN) and its national network of partners, both within and outside the Literacy…

Do online students exhibit different learning styles from onsite students; and if so, what accommodations relating to learning style differences may be made for online students? Our ideas of best practices within this area have been evolving to keep up with our students. Various tactics have been used to make sure students understand what kinds of…

Public higher education has faced a crisis of massive proportions in the first decade of this millennium. Nevertheless, for higher education, this year represents a turning point and, yes, an opportunity. The opportunity, then, for the West is one that generations of Americans are familiar with: to do more with less. Dealing with scarcity--whether…

The reform of South Eastern European country vocational education and training (VET) systems has been underway for more than a decade. Initially major efforts focused on reforming the curricula of the vocational schools and training centres to align them better with the rapidly changing needs of the labour market and society. Later the focus moved…

This guide is intended to stimulate professional reflection, dialogue and debate about mathematics and how to improve it. It draws together themes, features and characteristics of effective improvement in mathematics and descriptions of good practice. It offers a reference point for staff and teachers who are working together to improve…

A generational transition is occurring in U.S. public school classrooms. Baby Boom teachers (those born between 1946 and 1964) are approaching retirement age, and many of their colleagues from Generation X (those born between 1965 and 1976) are entering their mid-career stage. The newest generation in the teaching workforce is Generation Y (those…

In 2006 and 2007, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) awarded Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) grants for the development of systems to compensate teachers and principals in part based on increases in student achievement. New Leaders for New Schools (NLNS) received five of these grants and is using them to implement its Effective Practice…

Many articles and books have been written advocating for the use of literacy coaches in professional development and/or describing what literacy coaches should do. Some research has been conducted on the day-to-day practices of coaches, such as, how many hours they spend doing what (Alverman, Commeyras, Cramer, & Harnish, 2005; Deussen,…

This CED report examines teacher pay and other compensation issues. Schools must be able to compete effectively for college-educated workers who have more career choices and see themselves as more mobile professionally than did earlier generations. Traditional compensation policies for teachers (salary schedules that reward only longevity and…

The authors studied the testing pattern grades in four e-campus courses at Troy University with 76 graduate students. In their research, the authors found significant differences in average test grade scores between tests taken electronically without a proctor as compared to those administered using a live or a remote proctor overall. To control…

Schools in the United States and schools across majority of countries around the world today face two critical issues: "Inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms" and a contributing factor to success of this inclusion, teachers prepared to use best practices. "Best practices" in education are approaches to teaching,…

The No Child Left Behind Act is comprised of four pillars, one of which is "proven education methods." This paper attempts to provide a historical context for the development of evidence-based education by examining its foundation in medical practice. Next, the rationale for evidence of educational effectiveness based on a scientific…

This paper provides an overview of screening, identification, and assessment tools and processes that can be used by practitioners and researchers who care for immigrant and refugee youth. The authors focus particularly on those tools useful in school-based settings. First, the authors review mental health needs of immigrant and refugee youth and…