This dissertation examined the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) noncompliance complaints filed against school districts in commonwealth states with noncompliance determinations. To achieve the intent of this study, a content analysis of IDEA noncompliance determinations made by the participating state…

"Time to Act," a 2009 report of the Carnegie Corporation's Council on Advancing Adolescent Literacy, concludes that U.S. students are ill-prepared for the literacy challenges of 21st century higher education, employment, and citizenship. Word Generation (WG) is a research-based vocabulary program for middle school students designed to…

Over the past two decades, the role of career and technical education has shifted from one preparing students directly for employment, to one that offers vocational training as well as college preparatory academics. To support this effort, the federal government enacted the "Tech Prep Act" Title II under the larger "1990 Carl D.…

Developing school leaders who are equipped with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to effectively lead low-performing schools has become a critical goal for local school districts intent on dramatically improving student outcomes. Given the current criticism surrounding leadership preparation programs and the changing nature of school…

This research explores the phenomenon of peerless curricular innovation, defined as an innovative course that exists at a top-50 business school, but has not been directly replicated by peer schools. These outliers achieve a demonstrated impact on their intended audience, and result from multiple collaborators--not simply a single course created…

The population growth, labor force participation, and educational attainment of Latinos in the U.S. influence the composition of the current and future U.S. society, economy, and workforce. In 2012, the Latino population in the United States is the youngest and fastest growing ethnic group, with the highest level of labor force participation…

A lot of national attention was paid over the past few months to a situation in Central Falls, Rhode Island, where the superintendent took the action of firing all the high school's teachers. What started off as a small story about a labor dispute between the administration and the teachers' union at the high school catapulted into the national…

Perhaps the greatest challenge facing educators of today is to create and sustain high-quality educational environments for low-income students and students of color. The Boston Pilot Schools Network, a network of eleven small, innovative schools within the Boston Public Schools, can be a model for other schools and districts as to how to create…

Few studies have focused on practitioners' perspectives on and interpretations of official language policies in schools and how such policies shape their practices. Teachers are an integral part of the process of policy appropriations that occur within and across policy levels (state, district, school, and teacher). Through interviews with…

Studies show that the mathematics test-score gap is evident at every level of schooling and can be linked to students' earlier performance. For example, a mathematics performance gap was found in children as young as three years of age (Case & Griffin, 1990; Jordan, Huttenlocher, & Levine, 1992). Addressing the mathematics performance gap…

The intent of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all their students achieve mastery in reading and math, with a particular focus on groups that have traditionally been left behind. Under NCLB, states submit accountability plans to the U.S. Department of Education detailing the rules and…

An excerpt from Morgan et al., v. Hennigan et al., in U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts, in which the court found that the Boston public schools were segregated as a result of purposeful actions of school board members who acted with intent to segregate the schools. (EH)

This dissertation examines the formation, reformation, and standardization of land-grant colleges in the Northeastern United States during the last four decades of the nineteenth century. It is a history that explores the turbulent origins of land-grant colleges in Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont,…

The intent of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 is to hold schools accountable for ensuring that all their students achieve mastery in reading and math, with a particular focus on groups that have traditionally been left behind. Under NCLB, states have leeway to: (1) Craft their own academic standards, select their own tests, and define…

"A Progress Report to the Legislature: After-School and Out-of-School Time Quality Grant" is submitted pursuant to Chapter 61 of the Acts of 2007, line item 7061-9611. The Department is working to coordinate this state After School and Out-of-School Time (ASOST) grant program with other such programs in state organizations, such as the…