Universities have long practiced data collection techniques to gain insights and direction from their graduates, but public high schools are just now beginning to use this process to gather input from those who know the system the best--their alumni. Because past students' reflections on their high school education can indicate the level of…

With current considerations for reauthorization of the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, national attention remains focused upon public education student outcomes. The purpose of this manuscript was threefold: to review the historical background of the standards reform movement; to discuss a research project to redesign program content and align…

Today, it is increasingly difficult for states to adequately satisfy the demand for well-funded and quality public services, such as K-12 education by relying exclusively on traditional, broad-based taxes for fiscal support. State sponsored lotteries are an increasingly popular, non-traditional revenue stream for public education. There is in many…

Educators are currently exploring the expanded use of a variety of new assessment tools in the classroom in response to pressures to enhance student learning. The present study examined quick writes as a tool in the context of third-grade classroom assessment. Third-grade teachers administered the same brief writing probe before and after students…

In this study, a multi-stage mixed analysis was used to examine stories from 72 undergraduate teacher education students regarding their best and poorest K-5 teachers, alongside responses to Likert-format survey items. Participants expressed strong agreement with items derived from the literature concerning characteristics of effective teachers…

The Ohio PSEO Program is a legislated dual enrollment curricular offering. The program provides higher educational courses that are also credited at the high school and funded at state expense for qualifi ed students. Although individual and institutional benefits of the program abound (i.e., accelerated postsecondary completion, decreased…

The newly updated report is an essential tool for school leaders and practitioners alike, and is the single most authoritative source for effective K-12 teaching and learning practices across the content areas. This one volume brings together in readable, concise language the authoritative research on effective classroom practices in all major…

Helping students to become active and engaged learners at an early age is key to their success throughout their school years not only to raise test scores but to raise student achievement in a more meaningful way. If school staff work together, making maximum use of the knowledge base about teaching and learning, they will help students become…

Reading skills are crucial to the academic achievement of students at the middle and high school levels. Do your students have the strategic reading skills they need to succeed? Do your teachers effectively integrate reading instruction into their classes? What do your teachers do if they have students who have difficulty reading? This third…

Writing is a fundamental skill students need to be successful. Embedding writing instruction, as well as opportunities to write, into all content areas is key to improving student achievement at the middle and high school levels. The research findings in this ERS publication will help your teachers become successful at incorporating writing…

A review of the critical literature provides a brief history of systematic observation of classroom behaviors, long valued as an important data collection method in educational research. Milestones in systematic observation of classrooms are traced back to 1914 and the development and use of the Special Strategies Observation System (SSOS) through…

Today's accountability systems place the blame on schools for inadequate student academic achievement, which seems unfair to many people. They believe that family background and the socioeconomic mix of students in the classroom exert such a strong influence on student learning that teachers and schools can have only a limited effect. Important…

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Brown v. Board of Education school desegregation decision. Yet despite half a century of efforts to improve educational opportunities for African American students and other minorities, a large achievement gap persists. By 12th grade, the average African American and…

Beyond the debate over bilingual versus English-only education, the fundamental question remains: What are the best ways to teach English literacy to English language learners, and what rate of achievement in English is realistic to expect? Providing additional time, and ensuring that each child receives expert instruction, is expensive. But…

Recent research on effective schools (e.g., Pressley et al., 2001) identified consistent associations between students' literacy achievement and teacher practice. In this study, the author extended those correlational findings by conducting a controlled experiment to test the claims about 1 practice recommended by recent effective schools…