The purpose of this study was to determine if the adoption of the Deming philosophy by teachers and use of the LtoJ[R] process resulted in greater academic achievement. Results of internal consistency analysis indicated that the instrument, the "Commitment to Quality Inventory for Educators," was a reliable measure of the Deming…

It was the purpose of this study to determine teacher perceptions of the effective implementation of interactive technologies in one Virginia middle school. The questions that guided this study were the following: What are the Virginia middle school teachers' perceptions of effective integration of interactive technologies? Specifically: What are…

This study was designed to solicit the perspectives of AP and IB graduates who have completed at least one semester of postsecondary education about their experiences while in their respective programs. This study was also conducted to determine whether these IB graduates report that they were better prepared for postsecondary studies than…

Since MIT launched the first OpenCourseWare (OCW) initiative in 2002, responses from the academic community have ranged from exuberance to angst. Some institutions have been reluctant to adopt a program of open publishing because of concerns about long-term funding and possible adverse effects on paid enrollment. Money is an issue, forcing some…

The purpose of this study was to determine if implementing a specific collaborative structure would create effective teacher teams that in turn would lead to improved student achievement. An effective team can be viewed as one that uses collaboration to increase its knowledge and improve its practices. The structure that was implemented during…

This is the final report in Casey's "Closing the Achievement Gap" series that highlights stories, results, and lessons learned from more than a decade of education investing. This publication presents an overview of the Foundation's support to four organizations, each of which targeted technical assistance to a specific audience. It summarizes…

This report describes a policy analysis project examining principal evaluation instruments, policies and processes in the fifty United States, the state of Missouri, and 15 Kansas City, Missouri area school districts. Since current research demonstrates that the principal plays a critical role in the success or failure of improvement initiatives,…

This study explored whether an intervention involving Brain Gym exercises designed to increase academic achievement in the areas of math and reading/language arts would be successful. Three groups were used in the study: an initial treatment group, a delayed treatment group, and a control group. Each of the three groups was comprised of 20…

This study investigated the effectiveness of a standard protocol Tier 2 reading intervention among third and fifth grade students and the methodologies used to determine the intervention's effectiveness. Several confounding covariates were observed as a result of utilizing eligibility criteria for assignment to the Tier 2 intervention condition.…

Goal theory postulates that learners have both academic and social reasons for pursuing academic outcomes. In domain-learning theory, the development of expertise is domain specific and is a progressive learning process that is characterized by the interplay of knowledge, interest, and strategic processing. This study integrated goal theory and…

The primary objective of this study is to describe how reading programs are implemented in Reading First schools and in a group of schools serving similar populations of students. The surveys collected detailed information about reading programs from nationally representative samples of schools to illustrate how this billion dollar a year program…

The No Child Let Behind Act of 2001 created the Reading First program to help ensure that all students could read at or above grade level by the end of grade 3. The program promotes practices recommended by the National Reading Panel for early reading instruction, highlighting five essential components of reading instruction. The program invested…

Inverness Research is an independent national educational research group based in California. Its mission is to help projects assess the quality and efficacy of their efforts, and to help funders better understand the design of their initiatives and the value of their investments. Inverness Research has served by contract with CSTP (Center for…

This report discusses the progress of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) evaluation and presents a brief summary of the main findings of the seven distinct topical reports that have been completed for 2007-08--the second year of the evaluation. Those seven specialized reports build on the five reports that were released in 2008 and are:…

This report presents the final findings of research carried out by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), as part of an independent evaluation on behalf of pfeg, of the Learning Money Matters (LMM) initiative. LMM provides help, support and advice for secondary schools in delivering personal finance education (PFE) to their…