School improvement policy for the past few decades has been characterized by mandated lists of activities designed to stimulate a dramatic turnaround in student achievement. In the long run, this policy approach did not engender the necessary school-level changes. This brief demonstrates why new policies must aim to get the ...
States with Race to the Top (RTT) grants from a $4.35 billion Obama Administration initiative enacted as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 used more of the RTT-promoted policies and practices designed to improve K-12 student achievement, according to a new report by Mathematica Policy Research, ...
AIR, RAND, and Mathematica are collaborating on an evaluation of the Networks for School Improvement initiative. AIR is addressing these questions: What is the impact of the NSI on student outcomes? What aspects of the NSI approach are related to impacts on students?
States and schools receiving funding under a $7 billion Obama administration investment in Race to the Top and School Improvement Grants generally used more of the education principles embedded in those programs than those not receiving such grants, a new report released by the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute of ...
A new guide using strict scientific criteria to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of 22 widely adopted comprehensive elementary school reform models rates 15 as “limited” to “moderately strong” in demonstrating positive effects on student achievement.
Schools that show better academic performance than would be expected given characteristics of the school and student populations are often described as “beating the odds.” State and local education agencies often attempt to identify such schools as a means of identifying strategies or practices that might be contributing to the ...
This fourth and final brief in the California Collaborative on District Reform series examines how the Fresno-Long Beach Learning Partnership uses data to inform work across and within the districts. The Partnership is a collaboration that aims to improve student outcomes, accelerate achievement for all students, and close achievement gaps ...
The Plan, Do, Study, Act Process is central to the improvement of instructional routines. Watch one of the Better Math Teaching Network members in real time and in a real classroom setting introduce the Plan, Do, Study, Act, or PDSA, process.
For struggling schools, partnerships with external experts can seem like a critical lifeline. The reality of school turnaround partnerships, however, does not always resemble the ideal. What qualities of an external partnership indicate a greater likelihood for success? What actions by school administrators may make these relationships more effective? ...