This study examines the conflict facing state education officials in reporting the adequate yearly progress results required by No Child Left Behind and how those challenges obfuscated the transmission of school choice information to parents. To comply with school accountability mandates, state education officials transformed test scores into…

This "2018-2019 Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Strategic Plan Update" is the work of the IACC membership that was appointed under the Autism CARES Act of 2014. The Committee agreed that the "2016-2017 IACC Strategic Plan" reflected a comprehensive review of the state of the field and provided a set of 23 new…

Using assessment data to determine student growth has become an integral part of the accountability movement, and researchers and educators are currently examining how new rules impact the academic assessment of gifted learners. In 2008, the Association for the Gifted's Annual Symposium at the Council for Exceptional Children Convention focused on…

Principals are the leverage point for education reforms and the primary drivers of school improvement. A critical part of maintaining a corps of effective principals is rewarding and retaining the best school leaders. Unfortunately, few systems systematically identify principals that make important contributions to student learning or celebrate…

Achievement of adequate yearly progress (AYP) is crucial for all students due to the increased rigor of Common Core Standards and Keystone graduation requirements. Logically then, programs that can help students achieve AYP should be implemented to their fullest potential. This study investigated whether the Reading Apprenticeship (RA) framework…

Alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards are designed to measure the academic achievement of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities. Because this population has not previously been included in large-scale testing programs, these assessments present unique measurement challenges. Probably the most…

As schools across Arizona worked to meet NCLB's AYP requirement in 2010-2011, they were also labeled and sanctioned by AZ Learns. This phenomenological study focused on six effective high school principals in two Arizona school districts to ascertain how accountability policies impacted the principals' job responsibilities, autonomy, and ability…

This study reports on four urban middle- and high school principals' emotionally shaped sense making of Race to the Top policies and their ability to balance the competing demands of teachers' emotional needs with the charge to implement mandated, accountability-driven, instructional, and evaluation changes in their schools. Despite the pressure…

More than a decade ago, Michael Lewis penned the influential book "Moneyball." An examination of how Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane used data to make his franchise competitive with wealthier baseball teams, the book struck a chord. Beane's strategy of making decisions based on data had a powerful and positive impact on the…

In July 2014, President Obama signed into law the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), a major restructuring and modernization of U.S. workforce development programs originally created through the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), which had been awaiting reauthorization for more than a decade. This brief provides an overview of…

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 injected $7 billion into two of the Obama administration's signature competitive education grant programs: Race to the Top (RTT) and School Improvement Grants (SIG). While RTT focused on state policies and SIG focused on school practices, both programs promoted related policies and practices,…

Use of multivariate analysis (e.g., multivariate analysis of variance) is common when normally distributed outcomes are collected in intervention research. However, when mixed responses--a set of normal and binary outcomes--are collected, standard multivariate analyses are no longer suitable. While mixed responses are often obtained in…

This study examines the relations among the classroom literacy environment, children's interest and engagement in literacy activities, and children's early reading skills in a sample of 167 children aged 4 and 5 years enrolled in 31 Head Start classrooms. Researchers rated the classroom literacy environment. Teachers reported on children's…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Rhode Island's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Rhode Island will implement to address those challenges. In 2015, Rhode Island made significant progress toward its ambitious but achievable goals under the Race…

This Race to the Top - Early Learning Challenge (RTT-ELC) annual performance report for the year 2015 describes Vermont's accomplishments, lessons learned, challenges, and strategies Vermont will implement to address those challenges. Vermont's remarkable progress in increasing participation in their tiered quality rating and improvement system,…