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The recent turn toward core practices and practice-based teacher education has been accompanied by a growing literature on the definitions, pedagogies to teach, and assessments of core practices. Despite these developments, the field lacks core practices performance assessments designed to be used across course sections, courses, and subjects. This paper provides an existence proof of this type of assessment and investigates the affordances and constraints of the approach. The study describes three types of mixed-reality simulation-based performance tasks of three core practices. More than 400 novices in 64 teacher preparation programs in the United States reported that they were able to use the simulation environment and believed the tasks measure important teaching skills. Scores on the tasks were positively related to novices' prior academic and teacher education experiences. Implications for the formative use of such simulations are discussed.

Educational inequality due to family socioeconomic status (SES) has been the focus of both public dialogue and education research in the United States for many years. The current study aims to understand how educational inequality due to family SES has changed in the United States. Specifically, the study focuses on the changes in achievement gaps between high and low SES students between 2003 and 2017 and the changes in the performance of low-SES students over time. Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) grade 8 mathematics assessment were used for the analyses. Results show that the SES achievement gap at the national level has remained the same over time. State-level results suggest that 34 of the 50 states' SES achievement gaps experienced no significant change between 2003 and 2017, 14 gaps widened, and only two SES gaps narrowed. In addition, at the national level, more low-SES students achieved at the NAEP Basic and at the NAEP Proficient levels over time with a majority of states improving their low-SES students' performance. In conclusion, the study contributes to the existing literature not only by reflecting on U.S. national trends using an effective SES index, but also by providing state-level results. It also collects trend data on states' macro-level indicators, including economic growth, social inequality, and educational expenditures, allowing state-specific findings to be presented in the context of changes in macro-level context. Initial explorations of relationships between state SES achievement gap trends and macroeconomic factors are presented to motivate future research. The trends in SES achievement gaps and the specific policy contexts are presented in greater detail for 13 states/jurisdictions.

Although many programs remotely disseminate information to students about the college application process, there is little evidence as to how students experience these programs. This paper examines a large-scale remote counseling program in which college counselors initiated interactions with 15,000 high school seniors via text message to support them through the college application process. Given the passive nature of text messaging, not all of the counselors' prompts elicited similar responses from students. I use text-as-data methods (combining qualitative coding and supervised machine learning) to measure which interactions lead to productive engagement between counselors and students, and which do not. I show that interactions about financial aid offers and financial aid applications are much more likely to generate productive engagement than interactions about college lists. This finding may help to explain why recent remote counseling interventions that have sought to influence students' college lists have been ineffective.

Sixty-seven school finance reforms (SFRs) in 26 states have taken place since 1990; however, there is little empirical evidence on the heterogeneity of SFR effects. We provide a comprehensive description of how individual reforms affected resource allocation to low- and high-income districts within states, including both financial and non-financial outcomes. After summarizing the heterogeneity of individual SFR impacts, we then examine its correlates, identifying both policy and legislative/political factors. Taken together, this research aims to provide a rich description of variation in states' responses to SFRs, as well as explanation of this heterogeneity as it relates to contextual factors.

Higher levels of civic and community engagement in higher education are positively associated with students' academic performance and they also build upon citizenship skills such as informed voting. Yet, while these are worthy and important outcomes of higher education, students from disadvantaged backgrounds can have more difficulty navigating civic engagement. Focusing on students at thirteen major public universities in the United States, and utilizing survey data generated by the Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Consortium, this study suggest social perspective-taking has a significant positive effect on all students' probability of voting and participating in community service. Students who were asked to identify challenge/solutions to social problems and reflect/act on community issues in the classroom were also more likely to participate in community service. Additionally, Hispanic students and students from lower-income households are significantly less likely to vote and perform community service--findings corroborated by previous research. Females are more likely to vote and participate in community service--findings also corroborated by prior research. Hispanic students and students from low-income backgrounds were more likely to participate in voting and community service if they had increased rates of social perspective-taking. These results suggest that increased opportunities to connect with classmates in the classroom and develop perspective-taking skills (e.g. appreciating the world from someone else's perspective, acknowledging personal differences, interacting with someone with views that are different from your own, and discussing and navigating controversial issues) are potentially quite powerful ways to foster civic engagement among students who traditionally have the lowest civic engagement rates compared to their peers.

Bolstered by the recommendations of the 1998 Boyer Report, US federal agencies have put significant resources into promoting opportunities for undergraduates to engage in research. American universities and colleges have been creating support programs and curricular opportunities intended to create a "culture of undergraduate research." Yet our knowledge about the commonality of undergraduate research engagement--how it integrates into the educational experience, and its benefits or lack thereof--is still very limited. Universities exude the ideal of a pivotal link of teaching and research. We have assumed that personal interactions between active scholars and undergraduates--via traditional curriculum, research courses, working in a lab or doing fieldwork--have positive influences on students' maturation and their overall academic and social experience. The following exploratory study looks at data generated by the 2010 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) undergraduate survey, an online census administered that year at fifteen major research-intensive universities. In this case study of mostly AAU campuses, we find that while some 83 percent of upper division students (juniors and seniors) students experience one or more courses with a significant research requirement like a research paper or project, many lower and upper division students do not--a disappointing finding that needs to be addressed by these campuses. At the same time, undergraduate research engagement outside of the traditional classroom is a relatively common experience. Among those students we find that research engagement leads to self-reported learning gains across many areas, but especially in the areas of field knowledge, how to present and communicate knowledge, research skills, higher levels of satisfaction, better use of time, and higher levels of non-quantitative skills. Yet not all research activities are created equally. Participating in student research and independent studies contribute much more to the learning gains across all dimensions than merely assisting faculty in research. Among the two research activities, participating in student research course is more effective than independent studies in enhancing student learning. Among the three activities involving assisting faculty research, assisting faculty research as a volunteer without credit tends to be connected to higher level of gains than for credit and for pay. Taken together, it appears that research activities that involve active learning contribute more to student learning. We offer a number of recommendations to SERU campuses, including: 1. We encourage member campuses to explore what are the causes for some students not engaging in a research paper or project and seek a path to have all students have this form of research engagement; 2. Use the SERU database to provide regular reports on undergraduate research engagement, and include those reports in Academic Program/Department reviews; 3. Expand existing efforts so that most, if not all, undergraduates have the opportunity for two or more non-classroom forms of research engagement, perhaps depending on the field of the major and discipline. [The 1998 Boyer Commission Report--"Reinventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America's Research Universities" is available in ERIC at ED424840.]

Building a stronger teacher workforce requires the thoughtful orchestration of multiple processes working together in a human capital system. This white paper presents a framework that can be used to take stock of current efforts to enhance the teacher workforce in school districts or educational organizations, as well as their underlying theories of how the teacher workforce improves over time. The paper refines and provides evidentiary support for a human capital system framework composed of four subsystems that ideally work together to build a stronger teacher workforce: (1) getting the right teachers in the right positions on time (Acquire); (2) supporting professional growth in school-based learning communities (Develop); (3) nurturing, rewarding, and challenging high-performing teachers (Sustain); and (4) informing evidence-based personnel decisions (Evaluate). Attention to this framework will engender a corps of teachers with the capacity and expertise to collectively facilitate enhanced educational outcomes.

This paper reports results from a resume-based field experiment designed to examine employer preferences for job applicants who attended for-profit colleges. For-profit colleges have seen sharp increases in enrollment in recent years despite alternatives such as public community colleges being much cheaper. We sent almost 9,000 fictitious resumes of young applicants who recently completed their schooling to online job postings in six occupational categories and tracked employer callback rates. We find no evidence that employers prefer applicants with resumes listing a for-profit college relative to those whose resumes list either a community college or no college at all. Appended to the paper are; (1) Supplementary Tables and (2) Experiment Details.

Research examining the impact of arts education on workforce preparation has confirmed that programs incorporating the arts can be educational, developmentally rich, and cost-effective ways of providing students with the skills needed for productive participation in today's economy. Arts education has been shown to help students develop basic, higher-order thinking, and affective skills needed for workplace success. Studies have shown that young people who study the arts show heightened academic standing, a strong capacity for self-assessment, and a secure sense of their own ability to plan and work for a positive future. Studies of arts-based education programs for general, at-risk, and incarcerated youth populations in 10 states have documented their effectiveness and illustrated how schools can make strategic use of states' cultural resources. Governors seeking to take advantage of the arts as a workforce development strategy can take the following policy actions: (1) include arts education as an element of comprehensive education reform legislation; (2) encourage artists to participate in community development programs; (3) leverage the private sector's willingness to contribute to the arts by providing seed funding and starter grants to innovative arts-based education programs; and (4) facilitate collaboration between arts educators and juvenile detention centers to promote programs for detained youth. (Contains 27 endnotes.) (MN)

What happens when teams from 57 cities building afterschool systems gather to discuss two key system responsibilities--improving afterschool programs and using data for informed decision-making? Lots of rich discussion. This report covers a national afterschool conference held in February 2013. It details what mayors, program providers, system leaders, researchers and others had to say on matters ranging from how to measure afterschool performance to how to boost program quality. [This conference was organized by: American Youth Policy Forum, The Collaborative for Building After School Systems, The Forum for Youth Investment, the National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education & Families, and the Wallace Foundation.]

State postsecondary education data systems are vital assets for policymakers, researchers, and the public. The State Higher Education Executive Officers Association's (SHEEO) Communities of Practice project builds upon SHEEO's efforts to measure the capacity and effective use of state postsecondary data systems and provides states with opportunities to develop solutions to common system issues. The seventh Community of Practice convening, "Improving Equity and Opportunity through Postsecondary Data," was held September 28-29, 2022, in Denver, Colorado. The two-day meeting included more than 80 representatives from 17 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawai'i, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, and the District of Columbia. Teams included representatives from SHEEO agency academic affairs, workforce, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and research and data offices and their partners at state agencies and two- and four-year postsecondary institutions. Given the recent impacts on higher education from the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice unrest, and economic pressures facing the country, a focus on equity and opportunity was timely for this Community of Practice. SHEEO agency staff communicated a need to inform state attainment and economic goals through improved collection and use of postsecondary student unit record data. Within and across state teams, Community of Practice attendees were able to learn more about the nuances and impacts of equity-and opportunity-focused data collection, disaggregation, and visualization; to better understand how to effectively communicate and illustrate the need for and the contributions of equitable student success in their states; and to reflect on their capacity, partnerships, and resources available to effectively engage in this work. In this paper, SHEEO shares the presentations, resources, and team activities from the convening. This information can be used by SHEEO agencies to reflect on their current practices, plan and develop effective data policies, and better use data to improve postsecondary equity and opportunity outcomes in their states.

There are deep and often institutionalized root causes for persistent equity gaps in postsecondary access and attainment in the United States. Many data sources, as well as the dozens of practitioners interviewed for this paper, affirm this. The majority of K-12 public school students are now students of color, and the U.S. Census Bureau estimates the majority of all Americans will be people of color by 2043. As the nation's demographics continue shifting, educators must increase attention and energy on ensuring this new majority is set up to succeed in education and training after high school. This paper provides insights to guide the work of stakeholders throughout the system: those in classrooms and schoolhouses, district offices, partner organizations, and statehouses. The four school districts profiled in this report offer valuable lessons and insights into different approaches to supporting students along postsecondary pathways.

This is the third paper on the topic of outcomes-based funding written by Dennis Jones for Complete College America. The first paper, "Performance Funding: From Idea to Action" (ED535356), proposed a set of design and implementation principles to help states develop and implement their own outcomes-based funding models. The second paper, "Outcomes-Based Funding: The Wave of Implementation" (2013) described features of models being implemented in states and the extent to which they conformed to the principles presented in the first paper. This third paper documents the continued spread of adoption with an increased focus in the field on whether outcomes are equitable across populations, with states disaggregating results by race, ethnicity, age and income and reporting those publicly. The additional purposes of this paper are threefold: (1) To reinforce the point that outcomes-based funding is but one component of the overall financing model for higher education in a state. The power of outcomes-based funding models is enhanced if the other components are designed so as to strengthen the alignment between funding streams and desired results; (2) To once again revisit the lists of design and implementation principles presented in the earlier document and (slightly) revise them in light of states' actions and experience; and (3) To describe the models that are being employed in implementing states and to assess the extent of conformance with the proffered set of design and implementation principles. This for the purpose of identifying areas of non-conformance to catalog potential weaknesses in models and questioning the applicability of certain of the principles. As with earlier versions of the document, the ultimate objective is to provide clear, straightforward guidance to policymakers who are searching for ways to better align their approaches to resource allocation with the educational outcomes that are of highest priority in their state.

Earning college credit in high school matters to students and parents. Students who earn college credits by taking a college-level course while in high school are more likely to enter college and succeed. Through these experiences, students become familiar with college expectations, academic behaviors, and habits of mind; get a head start on postsecondary education and gain academic momentum toward a degree or credential; and begin to develop a college identity. Additionally, just as states should know whether students are progressing toward and reaching certain benchmarks of college and career readiness, they should also know whether high school students are exceeding those goals by taking the advanced courses that further solidify their transition to college and put them a step ahead once they arrive. Policymakers and educators who value this indicator for key student subgroups can drive improvements in outcomes for low-income and minority students who are historically less likely to earn a postsecondary degree or credential. There is clear evidence that earning college credit prior to postsecondary enrollment is a predictor of college success. As a result, both Achieve and Jobs for the Future have encouraged states to incorporate into their accountability systems measures related to earning college credit while in high school. This paper provides research-based guidance to states contemplating whether and how to incorporate indicators of students earning college credit during high school into their accountability systems, including through their accountability formulas and public reporting. The first section describes the three most common models of earning college credit in high school: Advanced Placement (AP), International Baccalaureate (IB), and dual enrollment. The second section describes the research that shows the positive relationship between earning college credit while in high school and later college success. The third section looks at the landscape of current state policies on incorporating college course taking into accountability systems and highlights different state approaches in both accountability formulas and public reporting. The paper concludes with a set of recommendations for states interested in valuing students earning college credit while in high school in state accountability systems and provides concrete steps for ensuring that those policies serve all students.

This report highlights 10 of the most advanced and talked-about teacher evaluation systems nationally: Delaware; Rhode Island; Tennessee; Hillsborough County, Florida; Houston, Texas; New Haven, Connecticut; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Washington, DC (referred to throughout just as Washington); Achievement First (a charter management organization, or CMO); and the Relay Graduate School of Education in New York City. Together, these systems serve more than 1.6 million students each year. These are not the only systems taking on this work, but they are trailblazers. None of the sites featured would say they have fully "figured out" teacher evaluation. Nor do the authors hold them up as examples of perfection. Yet they have all worked long and hard to carefully and thoughtfully tackle the most difficult challenges related to developing and implementing a high-quality teacher evaluation system. This report consists of four components: (1) A brief which provides an overview of the report and background on the topics addressed in the other documents, including key questions, implementation options and trade-offs, and key terms; (2) A cross-site analysis that looks across all 10 sites and summarizes key components of their evaluation systems; (3) 10 detailed profiles of the teacher evaluation systems at our featured sites; and (4) A library of documents that are the building blocks of the 10 systems. Individual site profiles contain sources. (Contains 36 footnotes.) [This paper was created with 50CAN and Public Impact. Funding for this paper was provided by H. A. Vance Foundation.]

A total of 33 sites, including states, school districts, charter school coalitions, and other education organizations make up Cohorts 1 and 2 of the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF). These sites received funds beginning in the fall of 2006 and spring of 2007 to redesign compensation programs for teachers and principals. The U.S. Department of Education named a third cohort of TIF grantees on September 23, 2010. TIF grantees have confronted numerous challenges as they have worked to design and implement new performance-based compensation programs. These challenges include effectively engaging and communicating with stakeholders, developing a set of measures to assess teacher and principal effectiveness, and ensuring that data quality procedures are in place for such high-stakes decisions. As Cohort 1 and 2 grantees near the end of their five-year Federal funding period, fiscally and programmatically sustaining TIF programs has become a top priority. This paper describes the ways in which TIF grantees have approached fiscal and programmatic sustainability. The paper draws from multiple sources, including TIF program monitoring reports, Center for Educator Compensation Reform (CECR) technical assistance notes, grantees' internal and external evaluations, and interviews with selected grantees. The authors reviewed and analyzed these data with an eye toward shedding light on the following issues: (1) What fiscal and programmatic sustainability challenges have TIF grantees faced?; (2) What approaches to fiscal and programmatic sustainability have grantees taken?; and (3) What lessons can grantees learn about sustaining performance-based compensation systems in the current economic climate? This paper uses named grantees in describing examples of sustainability efforts. A few examples also use non-TIF sites that have developed innovative new compensation programs. Wherever the authors use examples, they are illustrative, not exhaustive, as the particular historic, economic, and political context of each district offers nuanced challenges and solutions. One goal of the brief is to share what has worked for some grantees as a means of helping Cohort 1 and 2 grantees sustain performance-based compensation after their grants end. Another aim is to help new TIF grantees develop their programs with an eye toward sustainability. Before beginning to answer the three focus questions that frame this paper, the authors first take up the issue of defining "fiscal" and "programmatic" sustainability. A list of data sources is provided. (Contains 4 tables and 5 footnotes.

Only a quarter of the class of 2008 graduated from Alain Locke Senior High School in Los Angeles after four years. This was unsurprising since nearly 60 percent of the class had left Locke by the end of their sophomore year. A majority of Locke teachers--frustrated with the school's mediocrity--petitioned to allow charter management organization Green Dot Public Schools to transform the school. Locke reopened its doors in the fall with new landscaping, new teachers, a series of new small schools within the school, and new expectations. Two years into the transformation, a record 73 percent of sophomore students were still there at the end of the year. Green Dot Public Schools's transformation of Locke is one of the most notable examples of a charter management organization, or CMO, turning around a chronically underperforming traditional public school. And the Obama administration would like to see more of it. This policy paper explores the role of charter schools in turning around the nation's lowest-performing high schools. Based on conversations with charter school operators, school district staff, researchers, and education reform experts, it examines how some pioneering cities--Los Angeles and Philadelphia in particular--are partnering with local charter operators to turn around some of their dropout factories and improve college readiness and graduation rates. The paper explores barriers and opportunities for collaboration between charter management organizations and districts to turn around high schools. It finds that the extent to which districts have access to CMOs in their area, the degree of expertise that CMOs have in targeting secondary schools, and factors affecting the charter sector's growth all have some influence on the likelihood of success from these partnerships. (Contains 91 endnotes.) [For related report, "Review of Charting New Territory," see ED523958.]

The National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), an organization dedicated to redesigning and expanding school time to improve opportunities and outcomes for high poverty students, and the Education Commission of the States (ECS), with a mission to foster both the exchange of ideas on education issues among the states and long range strategic thinking, have joined forces to produce this review. Their goal is to help education leaders to better understand the complexities of time related policy and its far reaching educational implications. In exploring how policymakers and educators have dealt with the matter of school time at the federal, state, and local levels, NCTL and ECS hope to accelerate the national conversation on how they can best leverage the power of time to realize the vision of a high quality education for all. This paper offers a number of recommendations highlighting fresh ways that policy and research can best support efforts to expand learning time in schools. State policies on instructional time are appended. (Contains 82 notes and 51 footnotes.) [This paper was supported by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.]

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) is working to respond to increased interest in the use of growth models for school accountability. Growth models are based on tracking change in individual student achievement scores over multiple years. While growth models have been used for decades in academic research and program evaluation, a wide cross section of policymakers at local, state, and national levels are now using different types of growth models. A total of 12 states are utilizing growth models that provide estimates of whether student achievement will meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) state proficiency targets within three years. These models were designed to meet the requirements of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In addition, 13 states have developed and implemented growth models as required by state policy; these models use different formulas to measure growth for students and schools. Finally, five states are reporting on growth under both NCLB and state policies. This paper is an overview and description of current state activities with growth models. Policymakers and educational leaders are also seeking more information on basic differences between various types of growth models and the assessments, data, and reporting systems necessary to implement them. CCSSO has developed an annual report and webpage focused on state accountability systems, and this paper provides a current snapshot of differences and similarities in growth models used by state education agencies. The present paper is one of CCSSO's recent efforts to provide information on this topic. (Contains 2 tables.)

Research led by the Consortium on Chicago Public School Research (University of Chicago) and the Center for Social Organization of Schools (Johns Hopkins University), has identified specific indicators--students' academic characteristics--that provide early signals that students are on a path toward dropping out of high school. Measured at different points in time, typically 6-9th grades, these indicators are used for a variety of purposes from identifying students in need of intervention to school and district accountability ratings. This Evidence-based Education Request summarizes ways that data are being used in schools, districts, and states, and by researchers to identify students at risk for not graduating and/or not achieving career and college readiness. Searches of Wilson Web, EBSCOHost, and the Education Resources Information Center (ERIC) were performed to gather this information. To add to their findings, the researchers searched well-known papers on such indicators (e.g., Allensworth & Easton, 2007) as well as the websites of reform support and education research organizations known to do work in this area. Finally, they conducted a Google search in order to identify lesser-known sites using these indicators. Information in this paper is meant to be informative to schools, districts, and states interested in learning from others who are implementing indicators. The list of places implementing indicators is "non-exhaustive and does not represent all the ways indicators can be formulated or implemented." (Contains 4 footnotes.)

This paper introduces a generalization of the regression-discontinuity design (RDD). Traditionally, RDD is considered in a two-dimensional framework, with a single assignment variable and cutoff. Treatment effects are measured at a single location along the assignment variable. However, this represents a specialized (and straight-forward) application of the design; a more generalized and flexible conceptualization of RDD allows researchers to examine treatment effects along a multidimensional frontier using multiple assignment variables (such as math and reading scores) and cutoffs. In Section 1 of this paper, the authors present the generalized RDD by describing its required components, the treatment effects estimated, and advantages and limitations of the design. In Section 2, they describe two analytic approaches for estimating treatment effects for the generalized RDD. The first is the "multivariate approach," which estimates treatment effects along a multi-dimensional frontier via a regression model. This approach is based on the assumption that the researcher can model the selection mechanism completely if all assignment variables and their respective cutoffs are known and observed (as is the case for many accountability policy studies that use RDD). The second is an extension of an approach originally used by Gill et al. (2007), which we call the "centering" approach. They show that both the multivariate and centering approaches yield identical average treatment effect estimates, though they have distinct advantages and limitations. In Section 3, they present an application of the "multivariate" and "centering" approaches in an RDD example that evaluates the impacts of missing AYP under NCLB on student with disability (SWD) achievement scores. They also discuss scenarios when neither approach is appropriate for estimating treatment effects. (Contains 4 figures.)

While new teachers bring energy and passion into their classrooms and schools, they can find themselves incredibly challenged as they learn how to plan and implement lessons, collect, and use data to inform their instructional practices, build relationships with students and families, manage classroom behavior, and meet the varying academic, social, and emotional needs of their students. To no surprise, inexperienced teachers and high teacher turnover disproportionately affect the achievement of students who are most underserved. Education Resource Strategies paints a clear picture of this in their report, "Growing Great Teachers" (ED593368), where they describe how an inexperienced workforce can impede efforts to improve conditions for teachers and students who have been underserved for far too long. In this paper, the authors look closely at inequitable access to experienced teachers for Latino students across the country. Findings reveal that, while Latino students have similar rates of non-novice teachers as their peers nationwide, drastic disparities still exist in several states. The findings reveal whether these inequities are due to varying levels of teacher experience between the districts in a particular state or within a particular district. In either case, these disparities are not inevitable. State and district leaders and local school board members can set clear goals and identify and address barriers to preparing, recruiting, and retaining strong and racially diverse teachers. And school leaders can take steps to create working conditions that ensure teachers, including teachers of color, remain in schools and hone their craft. [For the accompanying report "Getting Black Students Better Access to Non-Novice Teachers," see ED617544.]

Coaching is an individualized approach to professional development where educators work towards specific teaching goals with support and feedback from a designated colleague or expert. Coaching appears to be increasingly common in early childhood education (ECE) classrooms, and a number of local, state, and federal policy initiatives over the past five years have promoted coaching as a strategy to improve early childhood program quality. It is still evolving, and ECE practitioners and policymakers should understand different trends, goals, and frameworks for coaching so they can make informed choices. This paper considers ECE coaching programs and research at the state, local, and federal level, for educators of children ages birth to five, with a particular focus on Head Start programs. It summarizes what is known about coaching in ECE and shares some of the challenges, lessons, and opportunities emerging from research and program experiences. Then it recommends how early learning program leaders, policymakers, funders, and researchers can encourage and implement coaching more effectively.

The field of teacher preparation is falling short of its most important responsibility: ensuring that the teachers we train are ready to do the job. For more than a decade,TNTP preparation programs produced teachers who were no more or less effective than teachers from any other program-- some were great, some were poor, most were about average. Over the course of several years TNTP has worked to develop a new approach to teacher preparation. They began by clarifying higher expectations teachers need to meet in their first year in order to earn certification. TNTP also recognized the needed to help teachers meet those expectations and thus decided to rebuild their pre-service training program from the ground up based on the latest research and their own experience with tens of thousands of new teachers. This new approach to teacher preparation is called Fast Start. Radically different from typical pre-service training programs, Fast Start places a singular focus on helping novice teachers master basic, essential teaching skills instead of racing to cover every aspect of good teaching. Fast Start focuses on four skills teachers must master to be effective right away, and lays the foundation for learning more advanced skills down the road. Unlike most programs, Fast Start is grounded in intensive practice of skills teachers are called upon to use every day because what teachers can actually accomplish in their own classrooms today matters more than what they have read about in a textbook. Instead of expecting prospective teachers to improve on their own, Fast Start gives teachers specific feedback on what they should do differently in their very next lesson. This paper tells the story of Fast Start, and explains exactly how TNTP transformed their approach to pre-service training. What they have learned along the way is also shared in the hope that their experience and failures can serve as a road map for other preparation programs that wish to explore new ways to help novice teachers succeed.

Most institutions are collecting evidence of student learning, but it is not clear how these results are being used to improve student outcomes. To learn more about what colleges and universities are doing to use assessment data productively to inform and strengthen undergraduate education, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment conducted nine case studies. This report synthesizes the insights from these individual studies to discern promising practices in using information about student learning. Institutional behavior appears to be generally consistent with the Principles of Effective Assessment Practice identified by Banta and Associates (2002). For example, the case study institutions took advantage of calls for accountability to leverage internal improvement efforts, communicated widely about assessment efforts and results, and took time to reflect on their assessment activities and results. Equally important, the case study institutions aligned their assessment work with organizational structures and cultures, and focused their assessment efforts on specific problems or questions. The report concludes with lessons learned and reflective questions to help institutions advance their own assessment efforts within their specific institutional contexts. Appended are: (1) Methodology; and (2) Annotated Case Study List. [Funding for this paper was provided by the College of Education at the University of Illinois.]

K12 Inc. enrolls more public school students than any other private education management organization in the U.S. Much has been written about K12 Inc. (referred to in this report simply as "K12") by financial analysts and investigative journalists because it is a large, publicly traded company and is the dominant player in the operation and expansion of full-time virtual schools. Using federal and state data, Gary Miron and Jessica Urschel provided a description of the students served by K12 and the public revenues received and spent by the company at the school level. Further, they presented evidence from a range of school performance measures and strives to understand and explain the overall weak performance of these virtual schools. The National Education Policy Center (NEPC) sent a copy to K12 Inc. and invited them to send the authors a response to their evaluation report. Although the authors did not receive a response, "K12 Inc. Public Affairs" did prepare a document that was posted on their website that had fourteen bullet points, currently available on the K12 Inc website at http://k12choice.com/images/stories/K12_Response_to_NEPC_1.pdf. In this paper, the authors provide a brief response to these points. The following concerns of K12 Inc. are answered in this report: (1) Objection to the report's use of the term "falling behind"; (2) Pointing to K12 Inc.'s data concerning results of a "Scantron Performance Series exam"; (3) Pointing out new initiatives undertaken by K12 Inc. to support struggling students; (4) Contesting spending evidence from the report; (5) Attempting to minimize the importance and strength of the CREDO study; (6) Concerning the weakness of AYP measures; (7) Defending the company's teachers; (8) Concerning student attrition; (9) Concerning the company's internal "customer satisfaction surveys"; (10) Concerning students with disabilities; and (11) Concerning inclusion and exclusion of the company's schools and concerning data on free- and reduced-price lunch. [For the main report, "Understanding and Improving Full-Time Virtual Schools: A Study of Student Characteristics, School Finance, and School Performance in Schools Operated by K12 Inc. [with Appendices]," see ED533960.]

It is a simple fact that access to high-speed broadband is now as vital a component of K-12 school infrastructure as electricity, air conditioning, and heating. The same tools and resources that have transformed educators' personal, civic, and professional lives must be part of learning experiences intended to prepare today's students for college and careers. College students rely on technology for academic success and to improve personal productivity. In the workplace, everyone from mechanics to accountants to physicians depends on technology to conduct their work, grow their businesses, and collaborate with their colleagues--both locally and globally. With easy access to reliable, robust, and cost-effective broadband, one can ensure that each student's school experience mirrors evolving societal expectations for public education. Access permits students to create engaging text and multimedia projects such as videos, collaboratively conduct research with students on the other side of the state or the world, take online courses not available locally, and talk directly with authors and experts. Teachers can collaborate with colleagues, participate in professional development online, and immediately analyze the results from online assessments to personalize instruction for each student. Given that bandwidth availability determines which online content, applications, and functionality students and educators will be able to use effectively in the classroom, additional bandwidth will be required in many, if not most, K-12 districts in this country in the coming years. If educators are serious as a nation about preparing all students for college and careers, a concerted national effort will be required to address both school-based bandwidth needs and out-of-school access for students and educators. Given current trends and the real-world experiences of states and leading districts, this paper offers four recommendations for policymakers and school leaders committed to charting a course for the future of K-12 education enabled by broadband. Appended are: (1) Terms and Definitions; (2) Select Federal Funding Sources; and (3) References. (Contains 57 endnotes.) [For "The Broadband Imperative: Recommendations to Address K-12 Education Infrastructure Needs. Executive Summary," see ED532312.]