Data-driven decision making has become increasingly important in education. Policymakers require educators to use data to inform practice. Although the policy emphasis is growing, what has not increased is attention to building human capacity around data use. Educators need to gain data literacy skills to inform practice. Although some…

For students with significant speech and movement impairments, meaningful participation in educational planning activities is difficult. These students face barriers in communicating choices about daily activities and basic knowledge; therefore, student-initiated curriculum goals are not systematically included in IEP and transition planning…

This report includes examples of how Universal Service Fund support is used by beneficiaries across the country. Included in this version are approximately 140 success stories of how the Universal Service Fund is helping to improve connectivity in the United States. This report is updated quarterly, as Universal Service Administrative Company…

The National Drug Control Budget Summary identifies resources and performance indicators for programs within the Executive Branch that are integral to the President's National Drug Control Strategy. The Strategy, which is the Administration's plan for reducing drug use and availability, is based on three pillars: (1) Stopping Use Before It Starts,…

In late 2007, the Council of the Great City Schools conducted a high-level management review of the school district's human resources, financial, and technology operations to: (1) Review and evaluate the leadership, management, organization, and operations of the respective departments; and (2) Develop recommendations and proposals that would…

This document summarizes comments from 539 individuals on a literacy framework for Alberta, provided during the Alberta Literacy Forum held in Edmonton from April 14 to 16, 2008. The Forum was Alberta's contribution to the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) Pan-Canadian Interactive Literacy Forum, which involved all of Canada's…

The "Accelerated Reader" program is a guided reading intervention in which teachers are closely involved with student reading of text. It involves two components, the "Accelerated Reader" software and "Accelerated Reader Best Classroom Practices" (formerly called "Reading Renaissance"). The "Accelerated…

This brief presents the results of a study which found that a developmental mathematics program at a four-year institution is an effective mechanism for retaining students (Lesik, 2007). This study employed a regression-discontinuity model that researchers can use to establish a causal link between participation in a developmental program and…

Youth experiencing homelessness or in foster care face numerous barriers to higher education. Inadequate college readiness, the complexity of the financial aid process, and lack of housing and support services once enrolled in college make obtaining a college degree an often insurmountable challenge. Yet a college education offers these youth the…

The history of performance pay programs and policies in Texas provides a backdrop to the state's Texas Educator Excellence Grant (TEEG) program and the Districts Awards for Teacher Excellence (DATE) program. The TEEG and DATE programs are state-funded and provide grants to schools and districts to implement locally-designed performance pay plans.…

This article presents a story of the transformation of summer reading at Barnstable High School (BHS) in Massachusetts which took place during the last year of the author's practice as a school library media specialist before she began her work as a professor and researcher at Rutgers University. It is a true story about effecting change and…

Postsecondary level remediation has recently received a great deal of attention with the public questioning the efficacy of spending money on remedial classes, and scholars questioning whether such courses are effective in helping students graduate. The California State University (CSU) system has responded to the challenge of remediation by…

The University of Denver's Penrose Library's Stacks Maintenance unit is a separately managed unit that works in collaboration with all library departments to ensure complete access to the library's print collections. This unit takes advantage of a variety of techniques and tools to fulfill its mission, including a fine-tuned tracer system for…

This article evaluates the impact of an innovative early years music project developed on the Isle of Wight, UK, which aimed to enhance the role of music-making in educational settings for three- to five-year-old children. The MusicStart Project designed an original model for training practitioners working in such settings to increase their…

This article looks at STTEP, an outreach project currently housed at the University of Pretoria, which concentrates on the teaching of western orchestral instruments, plus background areas such as music theory, to disadvantaged children and youth from a variety of townships around Pretoria, South Africa. STTEP's direction can well be described as…