This book is about the threats to education quality in the developing world that cannot be explained by lack of resources. It reviews the observed phenomenon of service delivery failures in public education: cases where programs and policies increase the inputs to education but do not produce effective services where it counts--in schools and…

Response to Intervention (RTI) is gaining ground. However, using RTI to assess the needs of students with behavioral problems is in its early stages. Teachers have limited tools at their disposal to use as Tier 1 strategies, such as classroom management strategies, or maybe a social skills curriculum taught once a week for 30 minutes. Research on…

Targeted or universal pre-K? Direct instruction or learning through play? These and other debates are heating up as more and more young children across the country gain access to pre-K programs. Now there's a single volume that spotlights today's most urgent pre-K debates, explores each one from all sides, and paves the way for sound, educated…

New Leaders for New Schools created the Effective Practice Incentive Community (EPIC) initiative in 2006 to learn from educators driving achievement gains in high-need urban schools. EPIC identifies school leaders and teachers whose students are making significant achievement gains and financially rewards these educators in exchange for sharing…

Agencies that fund scientific research have called increasingly in recent years for the projects they support to contribute to broader social and educational impacts. However, the means by which these projects might best utilize their own resources to support educational outcomes for young learners have received relatively little attention. This…

The dissertation builds on the research literature studying conductor training and the musical attributes requisite for adequate conducting skill and musical performance. The study also provides evidence that effective tools for evaluation of band and orchestra conductors are prevalent throughout the music education literature. Public school…

In this quasi-experimental study, 127 preservice teachers from two community colleges enrolled in a mathematics for teachers two-course sequence. Control and experimental groups were used to investigate the effect that fieldwork had on efficacy beliefs. The Mathematics for Teaching Efficacy Beliefs Instrument (MATHEMATICS TEACHING EFFICACY BELIEFS…

As state-funded pre-K programs expand--more than 1 million children currently attend such programs--there is debate about the impact of state-funded pre-K on the quality and supply of child care for low-income working families. This policy brief looks at state policies and regulations regarding pre-K expansion that have the potential to positively…

This dissertation study uses culturally responsive pedagogy as a conceptual framework for exploring how teacher educators structure content, pedagogy, and classroom communities for teacher candidates of color at two model teacher education programs. Using multiple data sources including interviews, focus groups, classroom observations, faculty and…

Today, many students in higher education are considered digital natives--savvier and more experienced with technology than students in the past. In teacher preparation programs, teacher education students are commonly expected to demonstrate achievement of program goals and objectives and national teaching standards in a "portfolio." Gaining in…

This study seeks to describe how elementary principals in a large Washington school district perceived the district office administration's implementation of Response to Intervention over a four-year period. RTI is a widely used intervention system that requires schools to assess whether each of their students is learning, adapting instruction for…

The purpose of this research is to determine the effects of home-based programmes aimed specifically at improving developmental outcomes for preschool children from socially disadvantaged families. The authors searched the following databases between 7 October and 12 October 2010: Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (2010,…

A total of 33 sites, including states, school districts, charter school coalitions, and other education organizations make up Cohorts 1 and 2 of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF). These sites received funds beginning in the fall of 2006 and spring of 2007 to redesign compensation programs for teachers and principals. The U.S. Department of…

A significant number of educator compensation reform efforts are under way throughout the country. These school-, district-, and state-level programs come in all shapes and sizes--some are small and focus only on a cohort of teachers or schools, whereas others are large and target entire districts or groups of districts. The structure of these…

While many music educators learn how to teach through teacher training programs, the standard mode of transmission in which piano teachers learn to teach applied piano is through proficiency of the instrument under the guidance of a master teacher. This tacit development of pedagogical knowledge occurs through the master-apprentice model of…