This report focuses on the extent to which students who are academically far off track in fourth or eighth grade in Kentucky catch up by eighth or eleventh grade. We studied three recent cohorts of Kentucky students whose eighth-grade ACT Explore® scores were more than one standard deviation below the ACT Explore benchmark scores associated with…

"Benchmarking 2009: Trends in Education Philanthropy" is Grantmakers for Education's (GFE) second annual study of grantmaking trends and priorities among members. As a national network dedicated to improving education outcomes through philanthropy, GFE members are mindful of their role in fostering greater knowledge in the field. They believe it's…

The push for a national curriculum is gaining momentum as reformers press states to acknowledge "world class" benchmarks for student achievement. The topic had been dormant since Clinton-era efforts to promote "voluntary national standards" yielded little more than charges of political correctness. With No Child Left Behind now…

Accreditation is a process of external quality review created and used by higher education to scrutinize colleges, universities, and programs for quality assurance and quality improvement. Accreditation in the United States is more than a hundred years old, emerging from concerns to protect public health and safety and to serve the public…

This article summarizes and evaluates two "Off-the-Shelf" school finance reforms that gained then waned in popularity over the past several years. The 65 percent solution claims that requiring all public school districts to allocate 65 cents of every education dollar "to the classroom" would drive substantial additional resources to children…

This paper uses time series data from a widely used assessment to identify colleges and universities that demonstrate positive trends on a range of educational effectiveness measures, describe observed patterns of improvement, and examine informants' accounts of factors that contributed to the improvements. This study informs broad questions about…

In this technical report, we document the results of a cross-validation study designed to identify optimal cut-scores for the use of the easyCBM[R] mathematics test in the state of Washington. A large sample, randomly split into two groups of roughly equal size, was used for this study. Students' performance classification on the Washington state…

Clusterwise linear regression is a multivariate statistical procedure that attempts to cluster objects with the objective of minimizing the sum of the error sums of squares for the within-cluster regression models. In this article, we show that the minimization of this criterion makes no effort to distinguish the error explained by the…

During the past decade, the use of standardized benchmark measures to differentiate and individualize instruction for students received renewed attention from educators. Although teachers may use their own assessments (tests, quizzes, homework, problem sets) for monitoring learning, it is challenging for them to equate performance on classroom…

This research study assessed the effectiveness of a three-dimensional mathematics game, DimensionM, through a pretest-posttest control group quasi-experimental design. Participants consisted of 437 eighth graders. The classrooms were randomly assigned either to the treatment group that utilized DimensionM as a supplement to regular classroom…

This paper addresses the need for a method of continual and frequent verification regarding course content taught in some post-secondary courses. With excessive amounts of information generated within the workplace, continual change exists for what is taught in some of our business courses. This is especially true for specific content areas such…

Although Response to Intervention (RTI) is a necessity for all schools, the truth is that supplemental instruction can never compensate for inadequate core instruction. That's why you need this book's improved approach to RTI. Authors Douglas Fisher and Nancy Frey introduce you to a strengthened model of RTI that emphasizes formative assessment…

Recent years have seen increased interest in data-driven decision making in education; that is, using various types of data, particularly quantitative assessment data, to inform a range of decisions in schools and classrooms. At the same time, districts, states, and schools have invested resources in tools designed to provide teachers, principals,…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to measure and compare the performance of Portuguese secondary schools. Design/methodology/approach: Some data on the schools were collected via an electronic questionnaire sent to 103 secondary schools of the centre region of Portugal; other needed data were available through the Centre Regional Education…

Cognitive defusion procedures, as used in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), attempt to alter how an individual relates to negative thoughts (without challenging, disputing, or trying to change their content) so as to promote psychological flexibility, the key feature of the ACT model of adaptive functioning. The current study examined the…