Quality Assurance in Curriculum is a customized solution to the problems of assuring curricular quality in a dynamic community college environment. It was designed by Red River College, a large, comprehensive community college in Western Canada, to address academic cross-jurisdictional issues in establishing and verifying curriculum. It is a…

ACT has been measuring college readiness trends for several years. "The Condition of College & Career Readiness" is ACT's annual report on the progress of the graduating class relative to college readiness. This year, 54.3% of the graduating class took the ACT® college readiness assessment. This report is designed to help inform the…

ACT has been a leader in measuring college and career readiness trends since 1959. Each August, they release "The Condition of College & Career Readiness" (www.act.org/newsroom/data/2014), their annual report on the progress of the ACT-tested graduating class relative to college readiness. Nationally, 57% of the 2014 graduating class…

There is strong consensus in California and in the country around the notions of equal opportunity for all children, and giving kids a chance of having it better than their parents. The reality in California is that most families lack the means and resources to provide their children with the basic building blocks of a productive life in the 21st…

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB, 2002) has produced an explosion of interest in the use of assessment to measure and improve student learning. Initially focused on annual state tests, educators quickly learned that results came too little and too late to identify students who were falling behind. At the same time, evidence from the…

This paper presents the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education's revised State Plan extension, which is effective until June 30, 2011. The eligible agency assures that this plan, which serves as an agreement between State and Federal Governments under the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, will be administered in…

Most of the literature has examined linear associations, yielding findings that higher quality is better and lower quality is worse (Vandell, 2004), but identification of thresholds in the association between quality and child outcomes has been a goal of researchers and policy makers for several reasons. A primary goal has been to identify levels…

The Civil Rights Research Roundtable on Education is an initiative of the Warren Institute that convenes an ongoing learning community composed of leading national civil rights organizations to discuss the latest educational research and evidence-based practices related to civil rights goals in education. This research brief reviews the research…

The three Magnet Schools Assistance Program (MSAP) schools: East Garner International Baccalaureate Magnet Middle School (EGMMS), Garner International Baccalaureate Magnet High School (GMHS), and Southeast Raleigh Leadership and Technology Magnet High School (SRMHS) have shown progress on MSAP performance measures during the 3rd year of the grant.…

In this study, researchers qualitatively analyzed middle school teacher participant perceptions of qualities of teacher effectiveness across 3 years (2006-2009) through 66 focus group sessions by comparing the participants' identified qualities to Stronge's (2007) Teacher Skills Assessment Checklist. Surprisingly, a disproportionate number (42.6%)…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer-based intervention and a procedural facilitator on the performance of fourth and fifth grade students with deficits in mathematics. Specifically, the study compared the effectiveness of two conditions: (1) a control condition consisting of traditional classroom instruction…

This technical report presents results from a cross-validation study designed to identify optimal cut scores when using easyCBM[R] reading tests in Oregon. The cross-validation study analyzes data from the 2009-2010 academic year for easyCBM[R] reading measures. A sample of approximately 2,000 students per grade, randomly split into two groups of…

The paper takes a critical look at the different metrics that could be used to measure First Nations student success. The paper concludes that more than one metric is needed given the holistic worldview of First Nations Aboriginal people. A framework undergirding First Nations student success is presented and discussed.

Education leaders and much literature exhort teachers and school leaders to use data more often and more effectively to guide planning and decision making--called, "data driven decision making." This term is ubiquitous in literature and reform discourse, but "on the ground," so to speak, practitioners face significant challenges in analyzing,…

The "Condition of College & Career Readiness 2014" is ACT's annual report on the progress of the graduating class relative to college readiness. This report provides a national snapshot of academic performance among African American students in the high school graduating class who took the ACT® college readiness assessment and…