Explains how suspension and expulsion for minor misbehavior leads to lower achievement, higher dropout rates, and more contact with juvenile justice. Calls for evidence-based alternatives, incentives to reduce school exclusion, and data collection.

Based on a decade of foundation research and work in school leadership, identifies five key actions that effective school principals take, including shaping a vision of academic success for all students and cultivating leadership in others.

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.

One of a series of guides for school district leaders on resource allocation, outlines a strategic design including before- and after-school small-group instruction, block schedules, and integrated curricula to optimize student loads and planning time.

Excerpts presentations and discussions from a May 2009 conference on the intersection of cognitive neuroscience, the arts, and learning -- the effects of early arts education on other aspects of cognition and implications for policy and practice.

Examines cost savings, impact on student performance, and political fallout from large-scale school closings in six cities. Outlines lessons such as the need to convince the community early of necessary closings and establish clear, quantifiable criteria.

Outlines a program to develop and test measures of teacher effectiveness by analyzing student assessment data, classroom observations, teachers' pedagogical content knowledge, and student and teacher surveys. Proposes evaluation and development criteria.

Describes data-driven efforts to raise high school graduation rates in New York, Philadelphia, and Portland, Oregon by replacing low-performing schools with smaller schools or offering alternative schools and programs, as well as their outcomes to date.