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This report describes the current version of the Why System, a script-based Socratic tutor which uses tutoring strategies formulated as production rules. The current system is capable of carrying on a dialogue about the factors influencing rainfall by presenting different cases to the student, asking for predictions, probing for relevant factors, entrapping the student when he has not identified all necessary factors, and presenting counterexamples. This system is incomplete because it lacks a goal structure to guide the tutorial sessions. The report outlines a more complete theory of the goal structure of Socratic tutors based on analysis of human tutorial dialogues. The main goals are to refine the student's causal model and predictive abilities. Sub-goals include the diagnosis of deficiencies in the student's knowledge and the correction of these deficiencies. (Author)

In Nepal, Girls' and Women's Education Initiative and the Girls' and Women's Education Policy Research Activity (GWE-PRA) investigated the impact of women's integrated literacy programs in the country's development by examining measures of socio-economic status, as well as indicators of women's social and economic development, including" (1) literacy and education; (2) children's education; (3) family and reproductive health; (4) participation in income-earning activities; (5) community participation; and (6) political participation. This research presents cross-sectional comparative analyses of these indicators in the baseline year (or Year 1) and measures changes in the indicators over a period of three years. Two integrated literacy programs were examined: (1) Basic and Primary Education Project (BPEP); and (2) the Health Education and Adult Literacy (HEAL) Program. Research design used quantitative and qualitative data. Quantitative data were collected annually for three years from an experimental and a control group chosen from the Terai region. Survey data were collected from more than 1,000 women entering one of the two integrated literacy programs. The same women were followed for 3 years through an annual survey. Research sought to determine the extent to which persistence in literacy classes differed by program, previous literacy classes, age, language spoken at home, socio-economic status, and district. Findings revealed that women in the HEAL program had significantly higher levels of literacy class participation than women in BPEP. Age also appeared to be a factor affecting persistence in the program. Experimental group women had a significantly higher mean socio-economic status (SES) composite score than women in the control group. Three policy implication factors are identified and discussed. Additional information and data are appended. (Contains 103 notes, 28 tables, 54 figures, and 100 references.) (BT)

This report presents third-year findings from an evaluation of the School Choice Scholarships Foundation Program. In 1997, this program provided scholarships via a lottery to low-income, New York City children in grades 1 through 4 that allowed them to transfer to private schools. The evaluation compared scholarship to control students, using test score, survey, and school-level data collected in the year 2000. On standardized tests, students offered scholarships performed similarly to control students. Those who ever attended private schools did not outperform those who never attended private schools. Patterns of impact for Hispanic students differed markedly from patterns for African American students in regard to test scores. Parents reported that schools and classes attended by scholarship students were smaller than those attended by public school students. Private schools were more orderly than public schools. Parents of children who switched to private schools were much more satisfied with their schools than parents of public school students. Among students offered scholarships, 53 percent used them to attend private schools for 3 full years. Parents who declined scholarships generally did so because they could not afford the added tuition and expenses. Five appendixes include research data and findings. (Contains 26 tables and 38 references.) (SM)

This paper examines the impact of vouchers on student test scores in Dayton, Ohio, New York, New York, and Washington, DC, highlighting New York City parental assessment of private and public schools to investigate why vouchers seem to have differential effects depending on the students' ethnic background. Researchers collected baseline test scores and family data prior to the voucher lotteries, administered the lotteries, and collected follow-up information 1 and 2 years later. At pretest and posttest, students entering grades 1-8 took the Iowa Test of Basic Skills in reading and mathematics. Parents completed surveys regarding satisfaction with their children's schools, involvement in students' education, and demographics. Results varied systematically by ethnicity. There were no significant differences between the test scores of non-black students who moved to private schools and of the control-group students. Vouchers made a substantial, positive difference for black students but did not significantly impact Hispanic American students' test scores. All control group parents were satisfied with their children's education. Hispanic and black parents were very satisfied with private school placements, though they differed in perceptions. Private school impact on black students was not due to school size, class size, school disruptions, school communications, desegregation, dress rules, hallway monitoring, school resources, homework, parent involvement, or student involvement with the school. (Contains 10 tables and 21 endnotes.) (SM)

This report presents an evaluation of the Cleveland Scholarship Program (CSP) after two years in operation. The program provided low-income families with scholarships that they could redeem at any participating Cleveland private school. The evaluation of the program involved a survey of two groups of parents in 1998: parents of children in grades 1-4 who made use of CSP vouchers to attend private schools (and had previously attended public schools) and a random sample of parents in Cleveland with first through fourth graders in public schools. Demographically, voucher recipients were more economically disadvantaged than the average public school family, but in other respects they were relatively advantaged. Voucher recipients were more likely to be African American. CSP won strong endorsement from participating low-income families. Most family background characteristics had little effect on parental satisfaction levels. Parents of voucher recipients were more likely to be very satisfied with nearly every aspect of their schools than were parents of students in Cleveland public schools. Significant differences in satisfaction were noted for teacher skills, the teaching of values, school discipline, and class size. Test scores from two private schools with large enrollments of CSP students rose. School mobility rates for voucher recipients were similar to those of students in the public schools. (SM)

The Washington Scholarship Fund Pilot Program (WSF) was established as a privately funded voucher program for low-income families in the District of Columbia. The WSF awarded its scholarships by lottery, making it possible to evaluate it as though it were a randomized experiment. The responses of qualified families with children in public schools are compared with those of families with children in private schools. Parental responses were from all applicants, and student responses were from students in grades 5 and 6. Private school samples ranged from 339 to 430 for different questions; public school samples ranged from 935 to 1,810. Students in private schools were more likely to report a positive educational climate in their schools, and parents echoed student opinions. Parental satisfaction was much higher for private schools, which demonstrated a greater capacity to stimulate parent participation and other forms of social capital among low-income, inner-city families. In applying for the program, parents were most interested in higher standards, a better curriculum, small classes, and improved safety. Although some findings could be influenced by parent self-selection through choosing to send their children to private schools, most findings held after statistical adjustments were made for demographic characteristics. An appendix describes parent characteristics. (Contains 9 tables and 25 endnotes.) (SLD)

At the request of the State of Pennsylvania, the School District of Philadelphia, in the summer of 2002, asked three for-profit firms to assume responsibility for 30 of its lowest-performing schools and it asked four nonprofit managers to assume the management of 16 other low-performing schools. A difference-in-differences analysis is used to estimate the impact of nonprofit and for-profit management on individual student achievement. Gains in test scores at the treated schools are estimated by comparing them with gains in other low-performing schools in the district. Students at schools under for-profit management outperformed those at schools under nonprofit management in all six years in both reading and math. Most estimations are statistically significant. Impacts of for-profit management relative to district management were positive in math, but no reading impacts could be detected. At nonprofits, students appear to have learned substantially less, especially in math, at nonprofit schools, than had their school remained under regular district management. However, impacts fell short of statistical significance. (Propensity Score Analysis is appended. Contains 21 endnotes and 9 tables.)

This report is one of a series exploring the way several important school districts across the country are dealing with the problems of separate and unequal education for minority students. The working of the choice and magnet school program of the Montgomery County (Maryland) public schools, a system that has never been under a court order to desegregate and in which desegregation has always been under the complete control of local officials, is profiled. Montgomery County is an affluent and highly educated community. A variety of data-collection methods were used to examine levels of segregation and concentrated poverty and the effectiveness of the county's 14 elementary magnets, 2 middle school, and 1 high school magnet, as well as to analyze schools' transfer requests and achievement trends. The study shows that choice plans and policies that are not well supervised and lack some key components to promote equal access may create merely the appearance of solving racial problems, and they may actually foster growing segregation over time. Some policy options for equal education are explored. Seventeen tables present study findings. (SLD)

Over the past 20 years, Japan has taken legislative and symbolic steps to recognize the Ainu as an indigenous people and to eliminate state-sanctioned racial discrimination. But the Ainu still experience discrimination from other sectors of society as a result of Japan's mono-cultural national identity, and the lack of judicial remedies to respond to discrimination. Ainu children face discrimination in school, which has lead to high drop-out rates and limited job opportunities. Despite new laws to protect Ainu culture, the government has not followed through with appropriate implementation. Today, the Ainu possess only ten percent of their ancestral lands, and are greatly limited in their capacity to engage in traditional occupations. The government has pledged to protect the Ainu language but has not incorporated it into the educational curriculum for Ainu children. Because Japan's political system does not provide mechanisms for minority representation, the Ainu lack parliamentary representation. Japan needs to take proactive steps to ensure that the Ainu can retain their culture while participating in the political life of the country. Those steps should include educating all Japanese to respect the Ainu; strengthening laws to combat discrimination; ensuring that Ainu have political representation; and taking meaningful action to redress past abuse and discrimination.

American schools, resegregating gradually for almost two decades, are now experiencing accelerating isolation and this will doubtless be intensified by the recent decision of the U.S. Supreme Court. In June 2007, the Supreme Court handed down its first major decision on school desegregation in 12 years in the Louisville and Seattle cases. A majority of a divided Court told the nation both that the goal of integrated schools remained of compelling importance but that most of the means now used voluntarily by school districts are unconstitutional. As a result, most voluntary desegregation actions by school districts must now be changed or abandoned. As educational leaders and citizens across the country try to learn what they can do, and decide what they will do, we need to know how the nation's schools are changing, what the underlying trends are in the segregation of American students, and what the options are they might consider. The trends shown in this report are those of increasing isolation and profound inequality. The consequences become larger each year because of the growing number and percentage of nonwhite and impoverished students and the dramatic relationships between educational attainment and economic success in a globalized economy. Almost nine-tenths of American students were counted as white in the early 1960s, but the number of white students fell 20 percent from 1968 to 2005, as the baby boom gave way to the baby bust for white families, while the number of blacks increased 33 percent and the number of Latinos soared 380 percent amid surging immigration of a young population with high birth rates. The country's rapidly growing population of Latino and black students is more segregated than they have been since the 1960s and we are going backward faster in the areas where integration was most far-reaching. Under the new decision, local and state educators have far less freedom to foster integration than they have had for the last four decades. The Supreme Court's 2007 decision has sharply limited local control in this arena, which makes it likely that segregation will further increase. This report shows that the country is far into the dual processes of racial transformation and resegregation. These trends likely will be accelerated by the new Supreme Court decision. The country risks becoming a nation where most of the new nonwhite majority of young people will be attending separate and inferior schools, and educators will be forbidden to take any direct action likely to bring down the color line. The experience in districts which have already been forbidden to carry out voluntary programs suggests that segregation may rapidly intensify. Obviously educators still face many choices that will be related to the intensity and degree of this resegregation, but there is no simple alternative. (Contains 63 footnotes and 22 tables.) [This report was produced by The Civil Rights Project/Proyecto Derechos Civiles, UCLA, formerly the Harvard Civil Rights Project.]

Max Weber attributed the higher economic prosperity of Protestant regions to a Protestant work ethic. We provide an alternative theory, where Protestant economies prospered because instruction in reading the Bible generated the human capital crucial to economic prosperity. County-level data from late 19th-century Prussia reveal that Protestantism was indeed associated not only with higher economic prosperity, but also with better education. We find that Protestants' higher literacy can account for the whole gap in economic prosperity. Results hold when we exploit the initial concentric dispersion of the Reformation to use distance to Wittenberg as an instrument for Protestantism. Two appendixes are included: (1) Census Data for Prussia in the 1870s/1880s; and (2) The Spread of Literacy from Lutheran Times to 1871. (Contains 32 footnotes, 4 figures, and 13 tables.)

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) commissioned TERC to complete a review of science education standards for all 50 states. The study analyzed K-12 Earth science standards to determine how well each state addresses key Earth-science content, concepts and skills. This report reveals that few states have thoroughly integrated climate, weather and oceans studies into their curriculum. Earth science integrates oceanography, meteorology, geology, biology, chemistry, physics and other disciplines to understand Earth's processes as an integrated system. In addition to practical applications in a variety of fields, Earth science also addresses environmental challenges such as climate change, hurricanes, and ocean issues. The study examined how state standards support integrating materials such as remotely sensed imaging, satellite photography, and data visualization tools into classroom education. Unfortunately, this study shows that Earth system science education in the U.S. is in need of significant improvement. The report shows a great variation in the states' Earth science education standards. This report is a call to action showing a pressing need for systematic reform. The recommendations listed in this report to revolutionize K-12 Earth science education are: (1) The concepts and approaches comprising the seven different review criteria should be viewed as an interrelated suite of perspectives, all supporting the core principles of quality Earth systems science education; (2) The ocean literacy principles and concepts could be enhanced by better incorporating a systems perspective; (3) Develop a comprehensive set of atmosphere, weather, and climate literacy principles and concepts, similar in format to the ocean literacy principles and concepts; (4) Directly participate in state science standards revision processes. (5) Ensure that Web-based access to data and analysis tools are usable by the K-12 education community; (6) Participate in the development of quality state and national science assessments; (7) Demonstrate that modern "revolutionary" Earth science perspectives and approaches to teaching result in deep student learning of science concepts and thinking skills; (8) Establish Earth system science as a science course widely viewed as being equally or more challenging as the classic high-school sciences of biology, chemistry, and physics; and (9) Tirelessly persist in promoting the revolution in Earth system science education with the understanding that improvements will occur incrementally. The following are appended: (1) Ocean Literacy Principles and Fundamental Concepts; and (2) Detailed Analysis of Ocean Literacy Concepts. (Contains 2 tables and 8 figures.)

The most accurate method for tracking high school graduation rates is to provide each student with a single lifetime school identification number that would follow him or her throughout his or her entire school career. Texas has this system in place, but this report demonstrates that the official rates Texas has historically reported dramatically inflated graduation rates and other extended year measures of high school completion as much or more than most states lacking this capacity. The report concludes with general recommendations based on research, as well as specific non-state model legislation (or regulation) that embodies both the research findings and the National Governors' Association's compact calling for accurate and verifiable graduation rate reporting. Appended is "Model Legislation: Proposed Legislative Bill Template for Use by States in Developing Legislation Relating to the Collection and Use of Accurate Data about State High School Graduation Rates." The model legislation, or regulation, also provides an outline for better graduation rate accountability such that struggling schools will get the resources and assistance they need, as well as sufficient time to reach reasonable goals. The legislation is designed for adoption by any state and meets the letter and spirit of the federal requirements for graduation rate accountability in NCLB. (Contains 1 table.)

On July 14, 2006, the U. S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a study that compared the performance in reading and math of 4th and 8th-graders attending private and public schools. Using information from a nationwide, representative sample of public and private school students collected in 2003 as part of the ongoing National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the NCES study reported that the performance of students attending private schools was superior to that of students attending public schools. After statistical adjustments were made for student characteristics, the private school advantage among 4th-graders was reported to give way to a 4.5-point public school advantage in math and school-sector parity in reading. After the same adjustments were made for 8th-graders, private schools retained a 7-point advantage in reading but achieved only parity in math. In this paper, the authors argue that NCES's measures of student characteristics were flawed by inconsistent classification across the public and private sectors and by the inclusion of factors open to school influence. Utilizing the same data as the original study but substituting better measures of student characteristics, improved, alternative models identify a private school advantage in 11 out of 12 public-private comparisons. In 8th-grade math, the private school advantage varies between 3 and 6.5 test points; in reading, it varies between 9 and 12.5 points. Among 4th graders, in math, parity is observed in one model, but private schools outperform public schools by 2 and 3 points in the other two models; in 4th-grade reading, private schools have an advantage that ranges from 7 to 10 points. However, although the alternative models constitute an improvement on the NCES model, no conclusions should be drawn as to causal relationships from these or any other results based on NAEP test scores, because they are too fragile to be used for such purposes. Inferring causality from observations at one point in time is highly problematic. Appended are: (1) Variable Descriptions and Summary Statistics; and (2) The Lubienskis' Study. (Contains 9 tables.) [This paper was prepared for the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA, August 2006.]

In October 2003, the US Department of Education contracted with Abt Associates to design and conduct the Reading First Implementation Evaluation. This report focuses on the following questions: (1) How is the Reading First program implemented in districts and schools? and (2) How does reading instruction differ in Reading First schools and non-grantee Title I schools The Reading First program's overarching goal is to improve the quality of reading instruction--and thereby improve the reading skills and achievement of children in the primary grades--by providing substantial resources at both the state and local levels. The five-year study has produced this interim report based on data collected during the 2004-05 school year as well as analyses of extant data sources. The following are appended: (1) The Study Samples and the Sampling Weights; (2) Survey Instruments; (3) Back-up Exhibits; and (4) The Construct Matrix. (Contains 61 exhibits and 52 footnotes.) [This report was prepared with assistance from: Robert St. Pierre; Beth Gamse; Alan Werner; and Quentin Dixon.]

Low-income students and students whose parents have not attended college typically are less likely than middle- and upper-income students to complete high school and attend college, and are thus less likely to reap the benefits of attending college. Lack of information, resources, and exposure to others who have navigated the college process may be substantial hurdles for these students. Federal financial aid is available through Pell Grants, college tuition tax credits, and student loan programs, but low-income students may not be taking full advantage of these sources. Even low-income students with high educational aspirations may find the financial aid and college application processes overwhelming and discouraging. The Talent Search program primarily provides information on the types of high school courses students should take to prepare for college and on the financial aid available to pay for college. The program also helps students access financial aid through applications for grants, loans, and scholarships, and orients students to different types of colleges and the college application process. After a two-year implementation study, the U.S. Department of Education's Policy and Program Studies Service selected Mathematica Policy Research Inc. (MPR) in 2000 to assess the effect of Talent Search in selected states. The study team opted to compile data from administrative records from many sources, including program, state, and federal records, to evaluate the effectiveness of federal education programs, partly as a test of whether such an evaluation was feasible. The study also yielded useful information about the effectiveness of the Talent Search program. It included an analysis of the effectiveness of the Talent Search program in Florida, Indiana, and Texas. The study team's analysis was based on administrative data compiled in these three states and a quasi-experimental design to create matched comparison groups. The findings presented in this report suggest that assisting low-income students who have college aspirations to overcome information barriers--an important objective of the Talent Search program--may be effective in helping these students achieve their aspirations. Practical information--direct guidance on how to complete applications for financial aid and admission to college and what a college campus looks and feels like--may have been one of the key services that Talent Search projects delivered. Appended are: (1) Chapter Tables; and (2) Compilation of Data Sources and Feasibility of Evaluations Based on Administrative Records. (Contains 38 tables and 15 figures.)

This report describes the academic achievement trends of students in Denver's elementary schools from 1994 to 2000. It begins with a brief introduction to the original 1973 Keyes decision and the path to its conclusion in 1995. It then presents a chronology of the standardized measures of academic achievement used by the Denver Public Schools and provides a descriptive longitudinal analysis of school-level Iowa Test of Basic Skills math performance (one of the standardized measures used by the district) for elementary schools in the district. The paper concludes with policy implications of the findings. (Contains 12 footnotes, 11 figures, and 2 tables.) [Funding for this work was provided by the Piton Foundation.]

Over the past two years, the U.S. Department of Education's (ED) has made such extensive compromises in implementing the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)that the law's legitimacy is in serious question. In response to growing state and local opposition to the law, political and professional criticisms of its requirements, and the increasing number of schools and districts identified for improvement, the administration has allowed a wide variety of changes in state accountability plans. These changes reflect a political strategy by the administration to respond to the growing state opposition to the law by providing relief from some of the law's provisions and reducing, at least temporarily, the number of schools and districts identified for improvement. But they are also a concession by ED officials that NCLB is not working and have created a policy that has no consistent meaning across states. This report documents the changes states have made to their accountability plans and examines how these policy shifts affect the meaning of accountability and who benefits (and loses) from the changes. The authors reviewed decision letters sent to all 50 states that outlined the changes approved by ED through December 2005. The intent of this report is to provide policymakers with information they can use to develop a systemic approach to correcting the flaws in NCLB by documenting the requirements that are difficult for states to implement and identifying areas where the law may not be working as intended. The report provides an easy to understand synopsis of the changes allowed by ED and state-by-state summaries of the amendments each state adopted. [Foreword by Gary Orfield.] (Contains 17 tables and 1 figure.)

This report describes the "Year Up" program, an innovative technology training program, that prepares and places low-income, urban young adults in entry-level IT jobs while also preparing them for college. The program targets recent high school graduates and GED recipients between the ages of 18 and 24 who are either unemployed or trapped in dead-end jobs. It provides them with an intensive year of technical, professional, and business communications training. It also provides an internship experience, college credit, and a high degree of personal and academic support. The report contains the following sections: (1) Entry Requirements; (2) Training Curriculum; (3) Paid Corporate Internship; (4) Support Services; (5) Description of Participating Employees and Employers; (6) Costs and Financing of Program; (7) Expansion; and (8) Program Results.

The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) teacher quality provisions recognize both the importance of teacher quality for improving student achievement and the unequal distribution of teachers across districts and schools. But the question of how to achieve the goal of a high quality teacher in every classroom is complicated because of the challenges of attracting and retaining teachers to schools serving large numbers of minority and low-income students, the schools most likely to have the least qualified teachers. Professional development, the primary mechanism in the law to improve teacher quality, is insufficient to overcome these challenges and insure a high quality teacher in every classroom. Moreover, the sanctions attached to the NCLB adequate yearly progress requirements create an additional disincentive for highly qualified teachers to remain in high-poverty schools. This report examines the challenges of implementing the NCLB teacher quality provisions in six states-Arizona, California, Illinois, New York, Georgia, and Virginia-and eleven school districts. The authors examine how teacher quality varies by school characteristics, how each state's policy context affects teacher policies, and the barriers to implementing the NCLB teacher quality requirements at the state and local level using both qualitative and quantitative data sources. (Contains 7 tables and 3 figures.)

Every year, across the country, a dangerously high percentage of students--disproportionately poor and minority--disappear from the educational pipeline before graduating from high school. Nationally, only about 68% of all students who enter 9th grade will graduate "on time" with regular diplomas in 12th grade. While the graduation rate for white students is 75%, only approximately half of Black, Latino, and Native American students earn regular diplomas alongside their classmates. Graduation rates are even lower for Black, Latino and Native American males. Yet, because of misleading and inaccurate reporting of dropout and graduation rates, the public remains largely unaware of this educational and civil rights crisis. California's failure to graduate so many of its students is a tragic story of wasted human potential and tremendous economic loss. When high numbers of youth leave school ill-prepared to contribute to our labor force and to civic life, our economy and our democracy suffer. Life opportunities for these youth and for their offspring are dramatically curtailed. This report recommends that until the single identifier system is functioning in California, the state should use Cumulative Promotion Index (CPI) for both reporting and accountability purposes. For accountability purposes the state should set a clear floor and the floor should be calculated for major racial groups, not just students in the aggregate. Schools and districts should be given rewards for schools or districts falling below the floor but that make substantial and steady progress over a number of years toward the goal. The state should provide substantial technical assistance to struggling schools and districts, especially toward improving the rates for Latinos, Blacks and Native Americans. Adequate-yearly-progress (AYP) sanctions should be reserved only for districts that consistently make little or no progress toward the goal. (Contains 21 footnotes.)

This policy brief provides information for practitioners and policymakers on how the NCLB requirements affect LEP students and their schools and explores some of the unintended consequences of the legislation. Although both Title I and Title III of NCLB apply to LEP students, this brief focuses on the accountability provisions outlined in Title I, which have generated the most controversy. The brief is divided into three sections. The first section summarizes the NCLB Title I accountability requirements that specifically affect LEP students. The next section answers commonly asked questions about the legislation and LEP students. A final section defines issues that need to be considered as the conversation about NCLB and LEP students continues.

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) partnered with Andrew Porter and John Smithson of Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) to develop an advanced, in depth approach to collecting and reporting data on the "enacted curriculum" in K-12 math and science, i.e. the actual subject content and instructional practices experienced by students in classrooms. The set of tools are called the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC). They have conducted research and testing of enacted curriculum survey tools with schools and teachers. As a result, they are now able to offer the survey tools and a range of related data services to states and districts. The two organizations are collaborating with the Learning Point Associates and The Surveys of Enacted Curriculum, TERC Regional Alliance to disseminate the SEC tools and services to education systems and to assist schools, districts, and states in using these new tools for improving K-12 education. The Surveys are designed to provide reliable, comparable data that are collected at the classroom level with teachers and students. They are available for English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. The SEC data analysis and reporting tools are intended to assist teachers, administrators, and policymakers with planning for instructional improvement in several ways: (1) align curriculum with standards and system-wide assessments; (2) monitor indicators of instruction and relationship to student achievement; (3) analyze differences in instruction and content across schools and classes; identify improvement strategies through school leadership teams; and (4) evaluate effects of initiatives, such as professional development, in changing math and science practices. The SEC tools and services have been developed with assistance from many educators and researchers. The data collection instruments were field-tested in several hundred schools. [Prepared by CCSSO SEC Collaborative Project which also includes partners: State Departments of Education; and Learning Point Associates.]

A growing body of evidence points to the size of schools as a significant determining factor in academic achievement. Large schools are often far less successful at educating students than small schools. This paper shall first examine the data which support this claim and the reasons why small schools might work better. Finally, our conclusions will be applied to North Dakota small schools, which have been under pressure from state government to dissolve and consolidate. Academic achievement data will be analyzed to show that ND small schools in fact outperform ND large schools. (Contains 81 footnotes and 2 graphs.)

Stigma and school voucher threats under a revised 2002 Florida accountability law have positive impacts on student performance. Stigma and public school choice threats under the U.S. federal accountability law, No Child Left Behind, do not have similar effects in Florida. Significant impacts of stigma, when combined with the voucher threat, are observed on the test score performance of African Americans, those eligible for free lunch, and those with the lowest initial test scores. No significant impacts of the voucher threat on the performances of whites and Hispanics are detected. Estimations rely upon individual-level data and are based upon regression analyses that exploit artificial distinctions created by cliffs within the accountability regimes. (Contains 1 appendix & 12 tables.) [Financial support for this report also provided by the National Research and Development Center on School Choice, Competition, and Achievement.]

Today, school principals are asked to lead in a new world marked by unprecedented responsibilities, challenges, and managerial opportunities. Are principal preparation programs equipping their charges for this new role? The authors examined the content of instruction at a stratified sample of the nation's principal preparation programs, including the programs training the most candidates, the programs regarded as the most prestigious, and more typical programs. Fifty-six programs were surveyed and at least four "core" course syllabi were collected from 31 that met the standards permitting systematic coding for a total of 210 syllabi. The syllabi yielded 2,424 total course weeks. Some of the key findings include: Just 2% of 2,424 course weeks addressed accountability in the context of school management or school improvement and less than 5% included instruction on managing school improvement via data, technology, or empirical research; 11% of course weeks dealt with instructional management issues like curriculum development, pedagogy, classroom management, and learning theory; and 1% of course weeks dealt with school public relations and small business skills, while less than 1% addressed parental or school board relations.

In an era of accountability, where school leaders are expected to demonstrate bottom-line results and use data to drive decisions, the skill and knowledge of principals matter more than ever. Amidst the efforts to prepare principals for this new world, little scholarly attention has been paid to the content of what principals are actually reading in the course of their studies or whether their texts are preparing them for the rigors of accountable management. In this study, the authors examined 11 of the 13 educational administration texts most frequently assigned in a sample of 210 core syllabi from a national sample of 31 programs. They tracked the attention devoted to a number of concepts central to school leadership. The texts were sorted into three broad categories: specialized texts, general texts, and foundational texts. Three questions guided this study. The first question analyzes the degree to which the texts emphasize performance, achievement, and accountability rather than inputs or school culture. The second question explains the degree to which texts cover important management skills, and the third question deals with the critique that schools of education promote progressive or "politically correct" values.

Focusing on the call for changes in school administration, this document reviews the nature of the educational reform movement in the 1980s before describing four trends that have fueled reform proposals. Trends described include general conditions such as the larger reform debate and the new conceptions of the appropriate organizational structure for schools as well as conditions specific to school administrators such as lessons learned from successful schools and dissatisfaction with the status quo. With reference to existing reform reports, this document explores the need for reform in the leadership, professionalism, and standards of educational administration by discussing the following areas of concern: (1) the direction of reform efforts; (2) the need for instructional focus; (3) the establishment of a professional knowledge base; (4) the need for a professional model of delivery; (5) administrator recruitment; (6) preparation program content; (7) preparation program structure; (8) monitoring progress; (9) certification standards; (10) employment standards; and (11) standards of professional development for practicing school administrators. Last, the necessity of bringing administrative programs and educational leaders' views in line with a child-centered educational agenda is discussed. Appended is a list of the 32 reform reports and studies analyzed. (108 references) (CLA)

This document presents a basic model of the relationship between leadership, situation, and outcomes. Following a discussion of questions on the nature, origin, and future significance of good school leadership, the conceptual, empirical, and practical tasks of a systematic approach to school leadership are explored. Multiple constituents, school structure, and the technology of instruction are described as three features of public schools that must be recognized in designing a research strategy. The influence of changing social problems, public problems, demographics, fiscal constraints, student populations, and expectations on school leadership is discussed. Next, conceptions of leadership are explored in terms of: (1) the significance of school contextual variables; (2) the relational nature of leadership; and (3) the difference between leadership and position. Last, our current understanding of educational leadership is summarized through a review of related literature, and needs related to promoting good school leadership are discussed. (113 references) (CLA)

There is concern that low-income children might be coming to school without eating breakfast and still not be participating in the School Breakfast Program (SBP) for a variety of reasons, including a perceived stigma associating school breakfast participation with poverty. One approach to increasing participation in the SBP is to offer free breakfast to all students, regardless of their household income. However, such a universal-free approach to increasing breakfast participation would substantially increase the cost to the federal government. Thus it is critical to know if such expenditures are warranted. Specifically, would the increase in SBP participation by students in elementary schools offering universal-free school breakfast result in improved dietary intakes and/or measures of academic performance? In this context, Congress enacted Section 109 of the William F. Goodling Child Nutrition Act of 1998 (Public Law 105-336), authorizing the implementation and the evaluation of a three-year pilot in elementary schools in six school districts representing a range of economic and demographic characteristics. The two main objectives of the evaluation were to: (1) Assess the effects of the availability of universal-free school breakfast on breakfast participation and selected student outcome measures including dietary intake, cognitive and social/emotional functioning, academic achievement, school attendance, tardiness, classroom behavior and discipline, food insecurity, and health; and (2) Document the methods used by schools to implement universal-free school breakfast and determine the effect of participation in this program on administrative requirements and costs. What these findings suggest is that simply offering free school breakfast to all elementary school students would not, on average, be expected to improve academic or behavior outcomes beyond what occurs in schools already offering the SBP. [This report was also produced by Promar International.]

Analysis by the Civil Rights Project has shown that the isolation of Latino and black students from white students in public schools has substantially increased since the l980s. These findings have been criticized recently in a report by the Mumford Center at the University at Albany, "Resegregation in American Public Schools? Not in the 1990s" and in Abigail and Stephen Thernstrom's book, "No Excuses: Closing the Racial Gap in Learning." The Mumford report argues that the increased isolation is not caused by public policy, but by demographic trends and hence, "it is misleading to label these trends as resegregation." The Thernstroms claim that "black and white students in our public schools have become much less separated over the past thirty years or so." Furthermore, they argue that the existing racial imbalance in schools should come as no surprise given the reality of residential preferences and differences in family income. This paper seeks to address these criticisms, clarify the findings of the Civil Rights Project at Harvard University, and reaffirm the Project's conclusion that black and Latino isolation has indeed increased, not only because of demographic trends but also because of public policy changes. (Contains 2 tables and 20 notes.)

This document reports on the findings from the "No Child Left Behind: The Teacher's Voice" survey, which grew out of the national study on the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Since there is much in NCLB that is aimed at teachers, the authors wanted to know what teachers think about the law and how they, and their schools, are responding to its strategies for change. Thanks to the cooperation of two urban school districts in Fresno, California and Richmond, Virginia, the authors obtained survey responses from two groups of teachers on opposite ends of the country. These two school districts serve many low-income and minority students, with one serving mostly Latino students and the other mostly African-American students, and each operates within a very different state policy and reform context. The response rate of the teachers to the survey was 77.4%. The survey was administered in May-June 2004.

This brief offers a preliminary framework for understanding and implementing evaluations of out-of-school time (OST) programs professional development initiatives. In so doing, it draws on research from early childhood and elementary education and highlights the evaluation methods and results of recent OST professional development initiatives at both local and national levels. A list of select professional development resources is included. (Contains 16 endnotes.)

Harvard Family Research Project's series of Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshots distills the wealth of information compiled in our Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Database into a single report. Each Snapshot examines a specific aspect of out-of-school time (OST) evaluation. This Snapshot describes the common data collection methods used by current out-of-school time programs to evaluate their implementation and outcomes.

This research was commissioned by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The Foundation approached the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development with an invitation to help it define and understand the forces affecting families and children in Indian America. Specifically, the Foundation asked the Harvard Project to identify the primary actors and activities that are effectively addressing the needs of families and children; help the Foundation understand the context in which progress is being made and the reasons why some initiatives and programs are particularly effective; and to draw from these examples implications for the roles of the many actors who contribute to the well-being of children and families--tribal governments, non-tribal governments, Native NGOs, non-native NGOs, and philanthropic foundations. This report is divided into the following sections: (1) Introduction; (2) The State of Children, Families, and Communities in Indian America; (3) Case Studies in Effective Family Strengthening in Indian America; (4) A Framework for Understanding Family Strengthening in Indian America; (5) Observations on Effective Family Strengthening in Indian America; and (6) Recommendations to the Philanthropic Community. Appended are: (1) Consultative Session on Family Strengthening in Indian America; and (2) Case Studies.

WIC provides supplemental food, nutrition education, and social service referrals to low-income pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum women, infants, and children younger than age 5. WIC has come under increased scrutiny as it has expanded rapidly, and some have suggested new directions for the program. This study examines a range of innovative practices at 20 State or local WIC agencies. The study focuses on practices in three main areas: breastfeeding promotion and support (including peer counseling and programs for high-risk groups), nutrition and health education (including obesity prevention, preventive health care, and staff training), and service delivery (such as home and workplace visits). For each innovative program, the report provides background information and discusses the source of the innovation, key challenges, implementation lessons learned, evidence of its success, and the feasibility of replicating the practice. (Contains 5 tables.)

Harvard Family Research Project's series of Out-of-School Time Evaluation Snapshots distills the wealth of information compiled in our Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Database into a single report. Each Snapshot examines a specific aspect of out-of-school time (OST) evaluation. This Snapshot provides an overview of how researchers are evaluating OST programs' engagement with families. [This Snapshot is based on a review of the Harvard Family Research Project Out-of-School Time Program Evaluation Database, which is supported by grants from the C. S. Mott Foundation and the W. K. Kellogg Foundation. The principal investigator for this study is Dr. Heather B. Weiss.]

Though metropolitan Boston is still one of the nation's whitest metropolitan areas, its growth is increasingly non-white and multiracial. Given the demographic trends and the high fragmentation that characterizes the metropolitan area, students are most segregated in regions where they are highly concentrated: black students in Boston, Latino and Asian students in certain satellite cities, and white students in the suburbs. The segregation is not just by race or ethnicity but is increasingly by language. High levels of segregation are also very dramatically linked to social and economic differences, proportion of credentialed teachers, and to differences in schooling outcomes such as MCAS scores and completion rates. Segregated minority schools are markedly less successful in terms of academic achievement as measured by the state's mandated tests. The following are appended: (1) Area Definitions; (2) Minority Share of Enrollment and Districts with Less than Half of 10th Graders Scoring at Proficiency Level or Better on English MCAS; and (3) Minority Share of Enrollment and Districts with Cumulative Promotion Index Less than 50 Percent. (Contains 20 tables, 9 figures, and 75 notes.)

The inequities of residential segregation and their impact on educational opportunity are a national problem, but greater metropolitan Boston has a particularly problematic history in terms of the extent to which racial segregation has deeply divided the city into separate and unequal systems of opportunity. Despite decades of policy efforts to desegregate Boston, racial segregation has persistently dominated residential patterns in the Boston metropolitan area, and, because it is so linked to inequality of schools and communities, minority children tend to be particularly disadvantaged by the persistence of this form of social stratification. Given existing research that has already established inequities in K-12 education, the purpose of the study described in this report is to examine the potential impact of geographic origin within the Boston metropolitan area on postsecondary access-oriented outcomes such as SAT scores and number and types of applications to postsecondary institutions. More directly, this study provides a descriptive picture of how students from different types of geographic environments in the greater Boston metropolitan area and of different racial and ethnic backgrounds experience opportunities for postsecondary educational access. The authors find that pathways to college are strongly related to residential segregation even after other factors such as income are taken into account. (Contains 14 tables and 10 figures.)