Five Idaho colleges increased retention rates for non-traditional students by 500 percent above the national average by simply changing key practices. Results were achieved through a three-year pilot designed to improve retention and completion rates at Idaho community and technical colleges and fuel the state's economy with skilled workers.
Non-traditional students -- unemployed workers, alternative high school students, young single parents and dropouts -- face work schedule conflicts, family obligations and geographic and financial barriers to higher education. Statistically, more than half of students who enter a two-year certificate or degree program in Idaho drop out in the second year, often debt-ridden.
The pilot project, funded by the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation, used nationally proven best practices designed to lower barriers and develop resilience. Schools delivered enhanced advising, mentoring and remediation techniques; monitored student progress; and created support groups for almost 500 non-traditional students.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Western) / Idaho
Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
According to this issue brief, to improve the feedback new teachers receive districts must rethink feedback as a complex system of many parts, rather than simply a series of isolated conversations between principals and teachers. This paper is designed to guide districts through this process, helping them recognize the interconnected factors at the district, school, and classroom level that shape the nature of feedback.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Ohio, North America-United States (Northeastern)-Delaware, North America-United States (Southern)-Tennessee
Education and Literacy;Race and Ethnicity;Women
This study examines the existing knowledge base about promoting Latina educational success, defined as completing high school and then going on to secure a college degree. It also adds to existing research by examining two large data sets - one national, and one California-based for predictors of successful educational outcomes for representative samples of Latina youth who have recently been in high school and college. Finally, after identifying important predictors of success from the existing literature, and the examination of current data, the study incorporates case studies of seven young Latinas who illustrate pathways of women who are finding their way to educational success through high school, community college, and four year universities. Their stories provide a deeper understanding of the challenges that young Latinas encounter in our culture, as well as the promise they represent.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States
Too many students in Chicago Public Schools are performing below -- often far below -- grade level. Ideally, all students should be increasing their subject matter knowledge and critical thinking skills over time. In September 2008 a three-year initiative, the Partnership for Instructional Leadership, was created to help a group of neighborhood elementary schools in Chicago Public Schools Area 4, on the city's Northwest Side, build the internal capacity to improve school achievement for all students at all grade levels, including Pre-K and English Language Learners.**Over the course of three years, the Partnership was implemented in 11 elementary schools�six for the full three years with five more schools joining in the third year. This report summarized significant outcomes and learnings from the Partnership experience.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States (Midwestern)-Illinois-Cook County-Chicago
Children and Youth;Education and Literacy;Race and Ethnicity
The Expanded Success Initiative (ESI) provides funding and technical support to 40 relatively successful New York City high schools to help them improve college and career readiness among black and Latino male students. This preliminary report describes key components and strategies of ESI and begins to look at factors that might influence the potential to apply ESI more broadly.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Northeastern) / New York / New York County / New York City;North America / United States (New York Metropolitan Area)
Education and Literacy, Employment and Labor
The National Council on Teacher Quality (NCTQ) has long advocated that any meaningful understanding of "effective" teaching must be rooted in results for kids. Whatever else they accomplish in the classroom, effective teachers improve student achievement. It seems like commonsense. Yet, until recently, it has been an exceptional way of thinking about teacher quality, totally out of step with teacher policy across the states.
As part of the annual State Teacher Policy Yearbook, NCTQ has systematically collected and analyzed state policies on teacher preparation, training, retention, compensation and other personnel policies. In this paper we provide:
1. A detailed and up-to-date lay of the land on teacher evaluation policies across the 50 states and the District of Columbia Public Schools;
2. An in-depth look at policy in states promising ambitious teacher evaluation systems (states requiring student growth and achievement to be a significant or the most significant factor in teacher ratings), including states' efforts to "connect the dots" and use teacher evaluation results in meaningful ways to inform policy and practice;
3. A compilation of some of the important lessons learned, pitfalls and successes states have experienced on the road to improving teacher evaluation systems.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
The Road Map Project seeks to double the number of students on track to graduate with a postsecondary degree or career credential in the South Seattle and South King County, Wash., region by 2020, as well as to close achievement gaps. It will do this by driving a dramatic improvement in student achievement from "cradle to career" in South Seattle and South King County. The project builds on the belief that collective effort is necessary to make large-scale change and has created a common goal and shared vision in order to facilitate coordinated action, both inside and outside schools.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America / United States (Western) / Washington / King County
Since the 1970s, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has monitored the academic performance of 9-, 13-, and 17-year-old students with what have become known as the long-term trend assessments. Four decades of results ofer an extended view of student achievement in reading and mathematics. Results in this report are based on the most recent performance of more than 50,000 public and private school students who, by their participation, have contributed to our understanding of the nation's academic achievement.
August 1970
Geographic Focus: North America-United States
