One of the most important trends in the early childhood field is the emergence of quality rating systems (QRS), or quality rating and improvement systems (QRIS), which are designed to assess, improve, and communicate the level of quality of early and school-age care programs. QRS came onto the scene in 1998 when Oklahoma enacted its "Reaching…

Exploring the critical role of school choice in the future of education reform, Grover (Russ) Whitehurst introduces the Education Choice and Competition Index (ECCI), an interactive web application that scores large school districts based on thirteen categories of policy and practice. The intent of the ECCI is to create public awareness of the…

The upcoming reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act provides an opportunity to reconsider what factors school performance-reporting systems should include. Critics of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) have pointed to the narrowing effects of the law's focus on mathematics and reading achievement, and they have called for efforts…

The nation cannot reach its degree attainment goals without substantially increasing Latino college completion. While all groups will have to increase college degree attainment to meet the goals, increasing Latino educational attainment is crucial for the U.S. to meet its future societal and workforce needs for three main reasons: (1) the Latino…

Despite significant regulations regarding the reading proficiency of students in the United States, more than half of students graduating high school are continually reading below proficiency (National Center for Education Statistics, 2010). In 2000 the National Reading Panel (NRP) identified phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and…

When Dr. James Ammons took the helm of his alma mater, Florida A&M University (FAMU), he inherited a nationally recognized school facing numerous crises. Ammons, who served as provost of FAMU during its heyday in the 1990s, knew the school was mired in trouble with the state, having accumulated dozens of state auditor questions about its…

The NEAIR 2013 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Newport, Rhode Island, conference. Papers in this document include: (1) Aspiring to the Role of "Data Badass:" Some Thoughts on the Political Context of IR (Mark Freeman); (2) Data-Driven Internal Benchmarks and Successful Learning Outcomes (Mamta Saxena…

The objective of this quasi-experimental quantitative study was to determine if the use of a student response system, combined with an interactive whiteboard, led to increased student achievement in mathematics within a fifth grade classroom as measured by a district benchmark assessment and the annual Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards…

Each week, nearly 11 million children under age 5 are in some type of child care setting for an average of 35 hours. Parents, as consumers of child care, equate a child care license with state approval--a gold seal for those businesses to which a state grants a license. Child Care Aware® of America reviews state licensing policies, which include…

The Higher Learning Commission (HLC), a commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (NCA), accredits Wyoming's seven community colleges. Institutional accreditation is a voluntary process that serves the critical purposes of quality assurance and institutional and program improvement. Colleges that are accredited by the HLC…

Community colleges continue to experience enrollment increases, which required the institutions to adapt teaching methods to embrace new educational technologies, students' learning styles, and changing demographics of the growing student population. Higher education institutions developed curricula that moved toward active student-centered…

This article reports on the mission of the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education to ensure equal access to education through compliance reviews. The Office hopes to use these reviews to provide technical assistance to help districts improve their performance. In late March, the Los Angeles Unified School District became the…

This study investigated how educational experiences between community college transfer students and native students differed at a four-year institution. The study sample included groups of native students and community college transfer students, who were further divided by timing of matriculation to the study institution. Benchmarks from National…

The national early learning community faces the challenge of using early learning standards and assessments to improve learning environments while preserving educators' freedom to plan early childhood curriculum that accord with a child-centered focus and developmentally appropriate practices. Drawing on recent developments in approaches to…

Drawing on the findings of a recent national survey, this article examines the extent to which higher education institutions in the United Kingdom meet the minimum standards recommended by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) for the management of work-related stressors. A comparison is also made between the average weekly working hours reported…