ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Crownhill Elementary Case Study: Closing the Economic Achievement Gap
Author: Washington State Board of Education
Date: 2010-08-00
Type: Numerical/Quantitative Data
Subjects: Achievement Gap,Recognition (Achievement),Low Income Groups,Graduation Rate,Language Arts,Mathematics Achievement,Science Achievement,Reading Achievement,Academically Gifted,Academic Achievement,Equal Education,Achievement Gains,Elementary Schools,Accountability,Minority Group Children,Response to Intervention,State Standards,Intervention,Writing Achievement

To spotlight effective practices, the Washington State Board of Education (SBE) is highlighting schools that are closing achievement gaps and performing at high levels. In 2009, SBE partnered with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) to create the Washington Accountability Index. The Index is a new way to measure schools' improvement, the degree to which they close gaps for low income students, and, starting in the 2009-2010 school year, the closing of the gap for students of color. Through the Measurement of Student Progress (Washington Assessment of Student Learning prior to 2010) as well as graduation data, the Index provides schools with a &quot;snapshot&quot; of their achievement in language arts, math, science, and extended graduation rates. The Index takes into account improvement from the previous year and a school's relative performance compared to demographically similar schools. In the spring of 2010, SBE and OSPI awarded top Index performers with the Washington Achievement Award. A statewide recognition ceremony honored 174 schools for exemplary performance in language arts, math, science, graduation rate, gifted education, and Overall Excellence (top five percent statewide). From the list of Overall Excellence award winners, SBE selected a few schools with the highest percentages of low-income students (measured by students eligible for free and reduced price meals) and students of color. These are examples of schools that are beating the odds and are closing the academic achievement gaps. The purpose of this paper is for schools to learn from Crownhill's extraordinary success. This paper hopes that schools may incorporate similar professional practices. (Contains 5 sources and 4 footnotes.)
Washington State Board of Education Strategic Plan, 2010-2011
Author: Washington State Board of Education
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Academic Achievement,Achievement Gap,Federal Government,Higher Education,Enrollment,Educational Objectives,Strategic Planning,Elementary Secondary Education,Leadership,State Boards of Education,Role,Educational Policy,Educational Administration,Accountability,Governance

In 2005, the Washington State Legislature significantly changed the role of the State Board of Education (SBE). While the Board retains some administrative duties, SBE is now mandated to play a broad leadership role in strategic oversight and policy for K-12 education in the state. This paper presents the strategic plan of Washington State Board of Education for 2010-2011.
Engaging Adjunct and Full-Time Faculty in Student Success Innovation. Cutting Edge Series. No. 1
Author: Public Agenda
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Guides - Non-Classroom
Subjects: Expertise,Community Colleges,Innovation,College Faculty,Adjunct Faculty,Academic Achievement,Achievement Gap,Higher Education,Faculty College Relationship,Educational Change,Stakeholders,Strategic Planning,College Administration

Community colleges are facing tough challenges, and engaging faculty members--both full-time and adjunct--in the hard work of meeting these challenges is critical. Colleges can reap major benefits from meaningful engagement with faculty, yet many institutions find it difficult to do. In partnership with Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, Public Agenda has developed core principles and promising practices for engaging faculty in changing institutions and closing student achievement gaps. This new Cutting Edge Series paper, "Engaging Adjunct and Full-Time Faculty in Student Success Innovation," builds on the existing work in faculty engagement and is based on fresh research with higher education experts and community college faculty. A faculty engagement resource list is appended.
The Impact of the Early College High School Model on Core 9th and 10th Grade Student Outcomes
Author: Edmunds, Julie A.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: High Schools,School Restructuring,Graduation Rate,Program Effectiveness,Grade 10,Student Characteristics,Program Evaluation,Grade 9,Program Implementation,Higher Education,Acceleration (Education),Dual Enrollment,College Preparation,Academic Achievement,Outcomes of Education,Careers,Readiness,Models

To address concerns about low graduation rates and a lack of workforce readiness, states and districts have been experimenting with different models of high school reform. One of the most popular models has been the Early College High School (ECHS) model, small schools that blur the line between high school and college. Since 2002, over 200 ECHSs have been created under the auspices of the Early College High School Initiative, which is primarily funded by the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates Foundation. North Carolina has the largest concentration, with over 70 ECHSs across the state. The purpose of this study is to rigorously examine the implementation and impact of the Early College High School model in North Carolina. This study is the first to utilize a longitudinal experimental design to assess the impact of the ECHS model on student outcomes. The study has three main goals: (1) Determine the impact of the model on selected student outcomes; (2) Determine the extent to which impacts differ by student characteristics; and (3) Examine the implementation of the model by site and the extent to which variation in specific model components is associated with impacts. Nineteen ECHS in North Carolina are participating in the study. Early results from this study show that the Early College High School model is having a positive impact on many outcomes associated with remaining in school and becoming ready for college. These results suggest that the ECHS is making substantial progress towards its goal of graduating more students who are ready for college and work. Although these findings are very positive, they are restricted to the model as implemented in North Carolina. Other early colleges around the country may not follow the same design principles and may not receive the same level of assistance in implementation as the schools in North Carolina; as a result, their results may differ. (Contains 1 figure and 4 tables.)
Longitudinal Data Collection in Career Pathways Programs: Core Indicators and Elements. Policy Brief
Author: Chisman, Forrest
Date: 2010-05-27
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Data Collection,Longitudinal Studies,Vocational Education,Adult Education,Community Colleges,Educational Indicators

The goal of any career pathways programs is to provide low-skilled individuals with the education and training they need to move from their present level(s) of skills and abilities to the level(s) required to hold family-supporting jobs. While far from a definitive statement on the subject, this four-page Policy Brief offers a brief discussion and illustrative listing of core indicators and elements of data collection in longitudinal career pathways programs. (Contains 2 footnotes.)
The Mechanisms behind the Results: Moderators of &quot;Building Blocks&quot; Curricular Effects
Author: Farran, Dale
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Instructional Effectiveness,Mathematics Curriculum,Intervention,At Risk Students,Preschool Children,Low Income Groups,Mathematics Instruction,Classroom Environment,Student Behavior,Outcomes of Education

In intervention research, it is critical to determine not just if an intervention is effective, but for whom it is effective and &quot;under what circumstances&quot; those effects occur. Moderators can be the key to answering those questions. A moderator is a variable that affects either the direction or the strength of the relationship between the predictor (curriculum condition, in this case) and the dependent variable (here, child outcomes) (Baron &amp; Kenny, 1986). Identifying those variables that help specify the conditions under which interventions are most effective is central to social science research (Cohen et al. 2003). Moderators of curricular effects may be particularly important to scale-up studies. There may be no more challenging educational and theoretical issue than scaling up educational programs across a large number of diverse populations and contexts in the early childhood system in the U.S. The paucity of high-quality instruments, or the use of any measure of the fidelity of implementation, is one of the most important deficits in the field of scaling up educational innovations (Borman et al., 2003). This paper examines possible moderators, using fidelity as the primary variable of interest, of the effects of an early mathematics curriculum used in a scale-up study across three states. Participants in this study included primarily at-risk preschoolers between the ages of 4 and 6 from low-income households. Data from this study demonstrated teacher adoption of many aspects of the curriculum, and the degree of adoption was related modestly to the amount children gained in math knowledge over the preschool year. While teachers enacted more math instructional activities, changing the quality of their instruction was much more difficult. Moreover, the overall instructional classroom environment in treatment and control classrooms remained very similar, as did children's learning behaviors. The results from this scale up investigation demonstrate how difficult immediate and sustained change is to effect. (Contains 2 figures.)
Principal Turnover in Illinois Public Schools, 2001-2008. Policy Research: IERC 2011-1
Author: DeAngelis, Karen J.
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Accountability,Principals,Labor Turnover,Public Schools,Administrator Effectiveness,Multivariate Analysis,School Districts,Occupational Mobility,Comparative Analysis,Predictor Variables,Urban Schools,Retirement

This report is the second in an Illinois Education Research Council series on public school principals in Illinois. This study focuses on principals' movements during the 2001 to 2008 time period, thereby providing recent information on principal retention and turnover during a time marked by increasing school accountability and public scrutiny of principal effectiveness. For our analyses, we focus on principal- and school-level data from state administrative records and other state and national sources for the eight years from 2001 to 2008. By piecing together annual data files across those years, we are able to track each Illinois principal from one year to the next throughout the period. We use descriptive, inferential, and multivariate analyses to determine the extent of principals' movements, as well as the personal and school-based factors that are associated with those movements. (Contains 6 tables, 6 figures and 9 footnotes.)
The Effects of Two Language-Focused Preschool Curricula on Children's Achievement through First Grade
Author: Kaiser, Ann
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Early Intervention,Child Language,Disadvantaged Youth,Emergent Literacy,Grade 1,Language Skills,Language Acquisition,Comparative Analysis,Academic Achievement,International Relations,Prediction,Outcomes of Education,Preschool Children,Preschool Education,Language Impairments,Kindergarten,Preschool Curriculum

Effective early language and literacy instruction to remediate language deficits and to prevent problems in learning to read is an important area for intervention research. Children with early language deficits who are growing up in poverty are dually at risk. Early deficits in language development predict both continued delays in language development and problems in acquisition of reading-related skills (Dickinson, McCabe, Anastasopoulos, Peisner-Feinberg &amp; Poe, 2003; Snow, Burns &amp; Griffen, 1998; Spira, Storch &amp; Fischel, 2005; Storch &amp; Whitehurst, 2002; Walker, Greenwood, Hart &amp; Carta, 1994). Early emergent problem behavior, particularly in children with low language skills, also predicts difficulties in reading, academic performance and peer relationships (Hester &amp; Kaiser, l998). Without effective early intervention to teach language and emergent literacy skills, many of these children will require intensive, long-term special education. This paper reports findings from a large randomized field trial examining the effects of three variations of early literacy curricula implemented in Head Start classrooms on children with low language and matched children with average language skills. This project involved the comparison of three conditions: &quot;Opening the World of Learning&quot; (&quot;OWL&quot;), &quot;OWL&quot; combined with &quot;Enhanced Milieu Teaching&quot; (&quot;EMT&quot;) for low language children, and an enhanced version of &quot;Creative Curriculum&quot; (&quot;CC&quot;), the existing literacy program used by the Head Start center. Effects of the preschool curricula on children's end of preschool, end of kindergarten, and end of first grade outcomes were examined. This intervention took place in Head Start preschool classrooms in Birmingham, Alabama. Overall, there were few systematic differences in language and literacy outcomes across time for low language and matched typical language children. Outcomes varied by child language status (low vs. matched language) and assessment time (end of preschool vs. end of K vs. end of 1st). The results were not those anticipated. Four potential explanations are being considered and examined in follow up analyses of predictors of child outcomes, teacher implementation fidelity, and &quot;active ingredients&quot; (specific teacher behaviors associated with positive language and literacy outcomes). The authors have not yet completed the full set of moderator analysis and they anticipate these analyses will aid in understanding the treatment outcomes. (Contains 1 table.
The Importance of School-Wide Enrichment Programs in Elementary School Settings
Author: Burris, Lauren
Date: 2011-05-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Behavior Problems,Student Behavior,Gifted,Enrichment Activities,Talent,Program Improvement,Program Effectiveness,Grade 1,Researchers,Enrichment,Critical Thinking,Learner Engagement,Student Participation,Experiential Learning,Student Motivation,Student Interests,Nutrition Instruction,Foods Instruction

Due to the state of California's budget crisis with education, over the last several years, Gifted and Talented education programs have been cut across the state. As a result, students are being simply taught to take a test, and enrichment to students, those considered &quot;gifted&quot; and all others, is not being offered to the extent that is needed. The purpose of this study to examine how elementary schools should provide all students with enrichment opportunities, not only those in gifted and talented education programs. The previous literature on this topic shows that overall students involved in gifted and talented education program thrive and are better prepared for adulthood. They think more critically and are better challenged in school. This study was conducted in a first grade classroom, in a Program Improvement elementary school. Twenty first graders participated in a week of enrichment activities centered around the theme of nutrition. The curriculum included hands-on activities on the topics of healthy eating, cooking, healthy meals and snacks. As children completed the activities the teacher-researcher made notes about student behavior and engagement. The researcher found that by providing the students with a more hands-on, enrichment centered curriculum the students were more motivated and interested in the curriculum and behavior problems decreased.
Claiming the Cultural Space of the Classroom: Issues of Ethics and Social Justice
Author: Kirshner, David
Date: 2011-04-09
Type: Reports - Evaluative
Subjects: Social Justice,Ethics,Classroom Environment,Cultural Influences,Figurative Language,Cultural Pluralism,Psychology,Acculturation,Teaching Methods

Issues of social justice are accorded scant space in the professional scope of most teachers. The purview of ideologues and do-gooders, social justice would seem to have little to do with practical, everyday teaching of subject matter content. This marginalization of social justice is supported by a traditionally individualist psychology that constructs learning as internal, rather than as part of a relationship to society. To the extent that cultural theory is recognized as relevant to learning, it is caught up in complex entanglements with other theories, rendering implications for social justice opaque and conflicted. The current paper untangles the learning metaphors that ground educators' interests in teaching, homing in on learning-as-enculturation, and issues of ethics and social justice attendant thereto.
Project TRREE 2009-2010 Annual Report
Author: Atwell, Nedra
Date: 2010-00-00
Type: Reports - Descriptive
Subjects: Teacher Effectiveness,Enrichment Activities,Educational Quality,Program Effectiveness,Special Education Teachers,Politics of Education,Enrichment,Teacher Qualifications,Teacher Recruitment,Diversity (Faculty),Public Schools,Teacher Persistence,School Holding Power,Teacher Education,Program Implementation,Academic Achievement,Teacher Supply and Demand,Labor Turnover,Teacher Shortage

Project TRREE (Teacher Recruitment and Retention for Educational Excellence) is a federally funded project conducted by the Kentucky Department of Education.  The purpose of the project is to develop a systemic approach to increase the number of highly qualified special education teachers with a focus on recruitment of linguistically, culturally and ethnically diverse educators. Every child in Kentucky deserves a well-qualified teacher. Today, with few exceptions, teacher educators, school administrators and policy makers recognize the impact that great teachers have on the students they teach. Research indicates that teacher quality is the most important indicator of student performance--more than class size, economic status, or other commonly cited indicators. But there's a problem. Kentucky's public schools are facing a teacher quality crisis due in part to the inability to recruit, retain, and fairly distribute the qualified and diverse teachers our schools need. Appendixes include: (1) Implementation Team Plan for the Recruitment of Special Education: Teachers Mission Statement; (2) Implementation Team Plan for the Preparation of Special Education Teachers: Focus Area--Preparation; (3) Implementation Team Plan for the Preparation of Special Education Teachers: Retention Group and PD for Special Education Teachers - Retention; and (4) End-of-Program Report--Beecher Terrace Spring and Summer Enrichment Program (BTSSEP).
The Internet in EFL Teacher Education: Investigating the Possibilities and Challenges in a Pre-Service Teacher Education Programme
Author: Abdallah, Mahmoud Mohammad Sayed
Date: 2011-01-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Student Teachers,Interviews,Guidelines,Foreign Countries,Content Analysis,Language Teachers,Internet,Vocational Education,Teacher Educators,Second Language Instruction,English (Second Language),Computer Uses in Education,Technology Integration,Educational Technology

The paper reported on a small-scale qualitative study on EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher education with a two-fold objective, investigating the possibility of integrating the Internet for academic purposes in the context of a pre-service English teacher education programme in Egypt, and suggesting some guidelines based on the specific context of Assiut University College of Education. Semi-structured interviews were conducted online with some student teachers (n = 10) and teacher educators (n = 10) at the university to identify their personal viewpoints, experiences and concerns regarding integrating the Internet into this teacher education context. For triangulation purposes, content analysis was conducted on 12 online documents. Results reveal some difficulties, challenges and concerns related to the process and some new forms of literacy needed for this context. Based on this, some guidelines are suggested for integrating the Internet into pre-service EFL teacher education programmes with special reference to the Egyptian context. Semi-Structured Interviews are appended. [This article was published in &quot;Sino-US English Teaching&quot; v8 n1 Jan 2011.]
First-Grade Retention: Effects on Children's Actual and Perceived Performance throughout Elementary Education
Author: Goos, Mieke
Date: 2011-00-00
Type: Reports - Research
Subjects: Program Effectiveness,Grade 2,Grade 1,Elementary Education,Grade Repetition,Comparative Analysis,Longitudinal Studies,Mathematics Achievement,Reading Achievement,Foreign Countries,Teacher Student Relationship,Student Attitudes

This study investigates the effects of repeating first grade on children's further academic growth, by tracking the actual performance and the teacher-rated performance of a cohort of Flemish first-graders until the end of elementary school. Two research questions are raised: (1) How do first-grade repeaters, at the cost of one extra year of education, develop in comparison to younger children with whom they will eventually finish elementary school (i.e., same-grade comparison), taking into account their propensity of repeating first grade?; and (2) How would first-grade retainees have developed, had they been promoted to second grade instead (i.e., same-age comparison)? This study is part of the large-scale longitudinal SiBO project, designed to investigate Flemish children's development and school trajectory throughout elementary education (Maes, Ghesquiere, Onghena, &amp; Van Damme, 2002). SiBO is the Dutch acronym for &quot;Schoolloopbanen in het BasisOnderwijs&quot; (School trajectories in Elementary Education). In the present study, all first-time first-graders (N = 3,707) were examined. The authors' results, on average, reveal that first-grade repeaters start their retention year with an advantage in math and reading fluency compared to their new, younger grade-mates who are at similar risk of being retained. Their teachers, however, rate them as equally (bad) skilled in math and language. In addition, over time first-grade repeaters grow significantly slower, making them even end up with a relative disadvantage at the end of elementary school, both in actual performance and as perceived by the teacher. Same-age comparisons, on the other hand, consistently show that first-grade repeaters would have achieved better in math and reading fluency and would have been rated more positively by their teacher in terms of math and language skills, had they been promoted to second grade instead, both in the short and long run. (Contains 1 table, 5 figures and 2 footnotes.)