This executive summary presents findings from the Year 3 evaluation of Texas' state-level Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP, grant. GEAR UP grant requirements include an evaluation component designed to assess program effectiveness and to measure progress toward project goals. To this end, the evaluation…

Leadership gurus often put creating a "shared vision" at the top of their pyramid of what successful leaders do. These visions are best when they are an anchor or a North Star -- unwavering goals that the district works toward. Author Jon Saphier proposes this North Star for districts: Make every school an engine for continuous…

The report is about the effectiveness of the YoungStar system which provides consumers with a simple 5 Star rating system for the quality of early care and education (ECE) programs for children ages 0 to 5. It also explores what was learned from a recent research study of YoungStar, Wisconsin's child care quality rating and improvement system. The…

At one end, we are grappling with quantity i.e. enrollment but on the other hand the most serious concern is quality and relevance of higher education imparted to student. In terms of quality, the biggest lacuna in the system of higher education is mismatch between the need of society and what the students are taught in classrooms. Our…

Technological progress has consistently driven remarkable advances in the U.S. economy, yet K-12 education sees little technological change compared to other sectors, even as U.S. K-12 students increasingly lag behind students in other nations. This proposal considers how we can take a signature American strength--innovation--and apply it to K-12…

The Success By 6® (SB6) initiative is designed to support early care and education centers in improving and sustaining quality in Pennsylvania's Keystone STARS Quality Rating and Improvement System (QRIS). This SB6 evaluation report examines implementation and outcomes. The findings have implications for SB6 continous quality improvement process…

In this article, the author talks about the resignation of New York State's commissioner of education David Steiner, and how it will affect the state's Race to the Top. He contends that Steiner was savvy enough to understand the importance of Race to the Top and able enough to turn the state's education energies toward it. The "Washington…

The 2007-2008 school year marked the first year Florida's Title I schools that did not made Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for five consecutive years entered into restructuring as mandated by the "No Child Left Behind Act" of 2001. My study examines the perceptions of teacher entering into their first year of school restructuring due to…

Supporting Teachers as Action Researchers (STAR) explores how school improvement initiatives may be sustained over time. It represents stage one of a broader investigation into how teachers' professional learning may be enhanced by positioning teachers as practitioner researchers and professionals who are capable of generating change from within…

Mayor Cory A. Booker, a rising star in the Democratic Party nationally, has high hopes for the role education in general, and charters in particular, can play in efforts to revitalize this long-struggling city. He says that, eventually, he would like to see one-fourth of Newark's public school students attend high-performing charter schools. The…

A major debate among education reformers over how best to reduce the achievement gap broke out during the 2008 presidential campaign. Most advocates on both sides backed Barack Obama, but they urged him to pursue different policies. The Education Equality Project (EEP) supported a continuation of accountability and other school-focused reforms.…

The manual provides information to assist administrators in deciding whether to adopt and implement the STARS program, a grade 9 and 10 science, math, and language arts curriculum designed to provide Kodiak Island, Alaska, students with academic skills, vocational training, and village skills to be successful whether they choose to go to college,…

Class size in elementary grades has taken on added importance recently. Research on the topic is finally getting some attention. Legislative and administrative actions to reduce deficits are pushing for larger class sizes, in addition to eliminating nonessential curricular activities, such as music, drama, and art. In Florida, various institutions…

Several dimensions of state-sponsored, reduced-class-size programs are addressed. At present, 20 states are contemplating following the lead of Indiana's PRIME TIME and Tennessee's STAR programs. Yet the effectivenessness of reduced class size in elementary schools continues to be uncertain and controversial. No one knows whether reduced class…

Constructively promoting the educational development of today's young tech savvy students and fostering the productive technological facility of tomorrow's youth requires harnessing new technological tools creatively. The MIT Teacher Education Program (TEP) focuses on the research and development of educational computer-based simulations and games…