This article reports on a case study that examined the views of primary teachers in one school about their ability to be creative practitioners within the current education system. This research was conducted following the recent emphasis that teacher creativity has been given in government debate. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with…

In the summer of 2011, the Tennessee Department of Education contracted with the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching (NIET) to provide a four-day training for all evaluators across the state. NIET trained more than 5,000 evaluators intensively in the state model (districts using alternative instruments delivered their own training).…

This report addresses the reporting requirements of Public Law 26-26 and the provisions of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) as described in the Department of Education's Board-adopted District Action Plan (DAP). The law specifically requires Guam Department of Education to include the following information in the Annual State of Public Education…

In fall 2009, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation launched the Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) project to test new approaches to measuring effective teaching. The goal of the MET project is to improve the quality of information about teaching effectiveness available to education professionals within states and districts--information that…

West Virginia Bill 300 (Jobs Through Education Act) requires all students in grades 1-11 to take the Stanford Achievement Test. A minimum of 50 percent of a school's students in grades 3-11 must perform in the third quartile or the school will be considered deficient. A clause in the bill states that all students will be tested except those…

This report is the first accounting of one case study of large-scale assessment practices in a local educational agency (LEA) where students with disabilities are administered states' standards-based tests out of level. The overall purpose of the research project was to describe the specific effects of testing students with disabilities out of…

Teachers of 30 adult evening high school completion classes in Jackson County, Iowa, completed questionnaires to assess their own inservice training needs in relation to program content and effectiveness. The comparative few who recognized a need for inservice training stressed such concerns as courses in English, and adult education trends and…

As part of the final year evaluation of the Reading First Program, the Georgia Department of Education (GDOE) continued to follow the achievement of the original group of Reading First schools during the 2000-2001 school year. The final evaluation focuses primarily on the Reading First program's effect on students' reading achievement. Information…

Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of adult expectations on children's learning and performance; one in-classroom study and two experimental studies were made in order to investigate developmental trends in susceptibility to expectancy effects and the relationship of induced vs. self-generated expectancies vis-a-vis children's…

This study examined the relationships between enabling structures, academic optimism, and student achievement to determine whether academic optimism served as a mediator between the two. Student achievement was measured using both criterion-referenced and norm-referenced tests. Findings indicated a relationship between academic optimism, enabling…

This article offers an explanation of standardized tests so that parents may understand the significance of their children's tests scores. Definitions of terms such as "percentile ranking," "norming group" and "criterion-referenced" are given. The author also questions the validity of high-stakes tests as a true…

An innovative, technology-enabled elementary school literacy program was implemented in a large urban school district. The program revolved around having student-adult pen pals read the same books and correspond about them. Statistical comparisons showed that program classrooms outperformed students in comparison classrooms on the SAT-9…

The report presents the results of a longitudinal study that sought to determine if children who participated in Head Start preschool programs demonstrated higher levels of achievement in elementary school, as evidenced by scores on the Stanford Achievement Test in third-grade and first-grade teacher reports. The study involved students who…

This applied dissertation was designed to evaluate a Reading Recovery program at an alternative school in Florida. The Reading Recovery program was used as an intervention for improving students' reading skills and performances on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) that is given each year to students in Grades 7 and 8. The…

Discusses the participation of students with disabilities on the Stanford Achievement Test in West Virginia and the testing guidelines and testing Accommodations used. The effects of the inclusion of students with disabilities on class standings and teacher attitudes towards the participation of students with disabilities are addressed. (CR)