In the spring of 2008, the Center on Education Policy (CEP) continued its ongoing research on the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) by conducting case studies of six schools in Illinois to learn more about the effects of NCLB and related state accountability policies on curriculum, instruction, and student achievement. The schools…

This document supplements the advice given in "How good is our school?" (HGIOS)--third edition and "The Child at the Centre"--second edition which set out comprehensive quality frameworks and provide helpful advice on the process of improvement through self-evaluation. In particular, this document provides advice on the…

Which comprehensive school reform programs have been proven to help elementary and secondary students achieve? To find out, this review summarizes evidence on comprehensive school reform (CSR) models in elementary and secondary schools. Comprehensive school reform models are programs used schoolwide to improve student achievement. They typically…

This document represents an innovative and radical landmark in the development of external quality arrangements for Scotland's colleges. The quality framework and arrangements for annual engagement, subject-based aspect reports, and external review reflect new thinking nationally, within HMIE, in the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding…

Sustainability has become a central consideration across the board in university business decisions. Passing a tipping point, it has become a pivotal focus of management. College leaders are increasingly drawing connections between sustainability, institutional missions, and higher education's fundamental purposes. Administrators readily rattle…

The "2011 State Preschool Yearbook" is the newest edition of our annual report profiling state-funded prekindergarten programs in the United States. This latest "Yearbook" presents data on state-funded prekindergarten during the 2010-2011 school year as well as documenting a decade of progress since the first…

The Mid-continent Regional Educational Laboratory (McREL), with funding from the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, undertook a project to address needs for school reform support that were identified as common among states in its region. In order to assist in a strategy for leveraging limited resources, McREL proposed to identify…

While improved student achievement remains the ultimate goal for systemic reform activities, it may take several years for reforms to manifest themselves in measurable student performance outcomes. Included in this 8-panel brochure is a set of intermediate benchmarks that can be used to determine if states, school districts, and regions are making…

The four reports contained in this document cover the first phase of the Apprenticeship Training Materials Clearinghouse project, which is being conducted at Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon. The interim evaluation report assesses phase 1 of the project by listing a series of 17 bechmark questions and providing answers to each. Attached to…

With some reflections on the management culture of higher educational institutions in China, this paper presents that it is not adequate to make analyses of rules and regulations from the mere perspective of institutional economics to get rid of short-term, which can be accounted for on a deeper level by the absence of management culture in the…

This document, "Grade Expectations for Vermont's Framework of Standards and Learning Opportunities" (hereafter "Vermont's Grade Expectations"), is an important companion to "Vermont's Framework." These Grade Expectations (GEs) serve the same purposes as "Vermont's Framework," but articulate learning…

The purposes of the 2003 Public Opinion Survey on Education in Indiana are to serve as a standardized approach for reliable measurement of public opinion, to allow for reliable comparisons to results of similar survey research projects, and to provide a research methodology that facilitates replication in the future and comparisons of results…

In this report, we establish benchmarks of readiness for four common first-year college courses: English Composition, College Algebra, Social Science, and Biology. Using grade data from a large sample of colleges, we modeled the probability of success in these courses as a function of ACT test scores. Success was defined as a course grade of B or…

The National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) annually collects information from undergraduate students about the quality of their education. In this first year of the survey, more than 63,000 first-year and senior students from 276 colleges and universities answered questions focusing on the extent to which they participate in proven…

This discussion forum focused on Edison Schools and their new business initiative, Edison Affiliates. The forum included two vice presidents of Edison and the president and chief operating officer of Edison Schools. The first speaker explained that Edison Schools operates 150 schools with about 82,000 students nationwide. They constitute the 35th…