Developing a Collaboration with the Houston Independent School District: Testing the Generalizability of a Partnership Model

Moving evidence-based practices into real-world settings is a high priority for education and public health. This paper describes the development of a partnership among the Houston Independent School District, the American Institutes of Research, and the Houston Federation of Teachers to support research on and program sustainability for the Good Behavior Game, a team-based classroom behavior management strategy that has shown positive impact in randomized field trials. The conceptual framework guiding partnership development is presented, followed by an application of the framework in Houston. Lessons learned and implications for the next stage of research and practice are then discussed

KIDS COUNT Indicator Brief: Reducing the High School Dropout Rate

Outlines the economic costs of dropping out of high school and proposes dropout prevention strategies, such as taking a long-term approach starting with school readiness, enhancing schools' holding power, and addressing outside factors and at-risk groups

The Way Forward: From Sanctions to Supports

The New York City Working Group on School Transformation brought together education practitioners, school reformers, policy-makers, advocates, and parent and student leaders to propose alternatives to the school closings policy of the New York City Department of Education (DOE). (See the list of Working Group members in Appendix 1.) The group was initiated by the New York City Coalition for Educational Justice and coordinated by the Annenberg Institute for School Reform following the fall 2011 conference Effective Alternatives to School Closings: Transforming Struggling Schools in New York City. This report presents the Working Group's conclusions about the limitations of school closings and a set of recommendations for systemic responses to the needs of struggling schools

Beyond School Closings: Effective Alternatives for Low-Performing Schools

Parents from low-income and working-class communities in New York City have been fighting for years for dramatic improvements in struggling neighborhood schools. Now the Obama administration has focused its education agenda on this challenge and is investing billions of dollars in turning around failing schools. This dramatic increase in political and financial support creates an opportunity for districts to focus on equity and finally get the work of improving lowperforming schools right. Federal funding for school turnaround has already begun to flow. In the next few months, thirty four NYC schools (thirty-three high schools and one elementary school) will start receiving up to $2 million each year for three years in School Improvement Grants (SIG) to implement one of the four federal options: Restart: Convert the school to charter, or close and reopen it as a charter schoolClosure: Close a school and enroll the students in other higher-achieving schoolsTurnaround: Phase out the existing school and replace it with new schools (NYC version of turnaround)Transformation: Replace the principal and redesign the school by increasing learning time, reforming curriculum and instruction, and increasing teaching qualityTo take strategic advantage of this opportunity to create sustainable change in our city's most struggling schools, the NYC Coalition for Educational Justice (CEJ) urges the NYC Department of Education (DOE) to create a School Transformation Zone to support these schools in implementing effective school improvement models without collateral damage to other schools. Innovation cannot be reserved only for better performing schools; the Zone will support comprehensive, innovative plans that will increase student achievement in the lowest-performing schools

Improving Supports for Youth of Color Traumatized by Violence

Many boys and young men of color live in communities where violence occurs too often and has a significant impact on their lives. This report examines the problem, offers strategies for various youth systems, and provides examples of approaches with strong outcomes for working with males of color who have witnessed or experienced violence

An Up-Close Look at Student-Centered Math Teaching: A Study of Highly Regarded High School Teachers and Their Students - Executive Summary

Today, far too many students see mathematics as a subject to be endured, rather than a subject of real-world importance and personal value. That doesn't have to be the case. When teachers use student-centered techniques to engage studentsin more active and authentic ways, they can transform math classrooms into lively learning environments in which studentstake charge of their own learning, collaborate with others, persist in solving complex problems, and make meaningfulconnections to the world around them. Through such experiences, students may come to appreciate mathematics as adiscipline that enriches their lives and their understanding of the world.While a growing body of research supports many of the principles of student-centered instruction, there is still a great dealto learn about how such approaches enhance student learning in mathematics. Recent calls for strengthening the STEMworkforce and for more rigorous K-12 standards via the Common Core State Standards have placed increased emphasison developing higher-order thinking and problem-solving skills in high school mathematics, heightening the need for moreinformation about how teachers can effectively engage students with math content.The American Institutes of Research (AIR), with support from the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, conducted a study ofhighly regarded high school math teachers to expand the research base in two important ways. First, rather than assumingstudent-centered instruction is a monolithic construct, the team used a case study approach to provide rich descriptions ofhow the approach plays out in several classrooms, taking into account how teachers' personal philosophy and the school'sinstructional context might influence their practice. The case study also provided insights into students' perspectives on different approaches to mathematics instruction. Second, the researchers look across a larger sample of classrooms to determine the effects of varying degrees of student-centeredness on students' engagement with learning and their problem-solving skills.This brief offers highlights from the study's design and findings. Readers are encouraged to access the full paper for more details

Funding Gaps 2006

School finance policy choices at the federal, state, and district levels systematically stack the deck against students who need the most support from their schools, according to a report by the Education Trust.The report, Funding Gaps 2006, builds on the Education Trust's annual studies of funding gaps among school districts within states. For the first time the report includes data and analysis on:How federal Title I funds widen rather than narrow the education funding gaps that separate wealthy states from poor states; and How funding choices at the school district level provide enhanced funding to schools serving higher concentrations of affluent students and white students at the expense of schools that serve low-income students and students of color

The politics of resistance to workplace cultural diversity education for health service providers : an Australian study

This qualitative study has as its focus an exploration of health service providers\u27 perceptions and experiences of the processes and implications of delivering workplace cultural diversity education for staff. Data were obtained from conducting in-depth individual and focus group interviews with a purposeful sample of 137 healthcare professionals, recruited from over 17 different organizational sites. Participants included cultural diversity educators, ethnic liaison officers, health service managers, nurses, health interpreters, allied health professionals, and community-based ethnic welfare organization personnel working in or with select metropolitan health services in Victoria, Australia. Analysis of the data revealed that workplace cultural diversity education in healthcare is a significant site of resistance and struggle. \u27Resistance\u27 was expressed in several forms including: the problematization of resources and staff availability to attend cultural diversity education forums; indifferent failure to recognize cultural imperatives in healthcare; deliberate refusal to recognize cultural imperatives in healthcare; selective recognition of cultural imperatives in healthcare (\u27facts sheets\u27 only); and the angry rejection of cultural imperatives in healthcare. \u27Struggle\u27, in turn, largely involved cultural diversity educators having to constantly \u27cajole and convince\u27 (and even manipulate) staff to attend cultural diversity education forums and using a \u27velvet glove and iron fist\u27 approach to teaching staff who remained resolute in their resistance when participating in educational forums. An important implication of this study is that the politics of workplace cultural diversity education - and the \u27politics of resistance\u27 to such programs - need to be better recognized and understood if the status quo is to be successfully challenged and changed. The need for critical debate and further comparative research on the subject are also highlighted. <br /

Early Colleges: Redesigning high school for college readiness

This chapter provides an overview of recent literature on college readiness and the emergence of the early college model. Using quantitative and qualitative data from an experimental study of early colleges in North Carolina, researchers describe the positive effects found on various indicators of college readiness

Preparing students for college: the implementation and impact of the Early College High School model

As implemented in North Carolina, Early College High Schools are small, autonomous schools designed to increase the number of students who graduate from high school and are prepared for postsecondary education. Targeted at students who are underrepresented in college, these schools are most frequently located on college campuses and are intended to provide students with 2 years of college credit upon graduation from high school. This article reports on preliminary 9th-grade results from 285 students in 2 sites participating in a longitudinal experimental study of the impact of the model. These early results show that significantly more Early College High School students are enrolling and progressing in a college preparatory course of study. This expanded access, however, is associated with somewhat lower pass rates for some courses, suggesting the need for strong academic support to accompany increased enrollment in more rigorous courses. Implementation data collected on one school indicate that it is successfully implementing the model's components