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Reports & Publications
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Some documents referenced
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Major New SREB Report Urges States to Improve Reading in Middle Grades, High Schools
States urgently need to make the improvement of students’ reading skills in the middle grades and high school the top immediate priority in public education, an important new SREB report asserts. Governor Tim Kaine of Virginia, the current SREB chair, led a special committee of state leaders that recommended a set of actions states can follow. Governor Kaine released the report May 1 at the Education Writers Association national conference in Washington, D.C. For more details, read the report or see this news release.
- The National Association of State Boards of Education has released a policy report—State Actions to Improve Adolescent Literacy: Results from NASBE's State Adolescent Literacy Network—that outlines the work of five states (Connecticut, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Utah, and West Virginia) where leaders have produced real changes in state focus and policies as part of a comprehensive literacy plan. These states took up the serious challenge of low literacy levels and made quality literacy instruction in secondary schools a priority. http://nasbe.org/index.php/press-release-archive/642-policy-report-issued-on-the-impact-of-state-action-to-improve-adolescent-literacy
- Supporting Literacy Across the Sunshine State, a study of Florida Middle School Reading Coaches, summarizes how despite recent progress in reading achievement among children in primary grades, many children are not moving beyond basic decoding skills to fluency and comprehension as they go on to higher grades. To address this problem, many policymakers suggest that reading coaches can improve teachers' practice and students' literacy skills. View article
- The brief Supporting Adolescent Literacy Achievement enhances recommendations and policy strategies from the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) publication Reading to Achieve: A Governor’s Guide to Adolescent Literacy. Download PDF
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America's Promise Alliance recently commissioned Grad Nation, a new tool comprising the best evidence-based practices for keeping young people in school paired with suggestions for effectively preparing them for life after high school. Learn more
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The Forgotten Middle: Ensuring that All Students Are on Target for College and Career Readiness before High School, released by ACT in December of 2008, has found that fewer than two of ten eighth graders are on target to be ready for college-level work by the time they graduate from high school. Further, the report states that unless we intervene in the middle grades, the changes of getting these students on track are nearly irreversible. Learn more
The National Governors Association, Council of Chief State School Officers and Achieve report, Benchmarking for Success: Ensuring U.S. Students Receive a World-Class Education, provides states a roadmap for benchmarking their K-12 education systems against those of top-performing nations. Download PDF
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From No Child Left Behind to Every Child
a Graduate This report outlines the Alliance for Excellent
Education’s Framework for Action to Improve Secondary Schools, which
reflects the consensus among educators, researchers, policymakers, and
other authorities on the specific problems of secondary schools, as well
as on the research- and best-practice-supported solutions to those
problems. Taken together, the seven policy areas contained within the
framework offer a comprehensive and systemic approach to secondary
school reform. Download
PDF
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First Focus has commissioned
Big Ideas for Children: Investing in Our Nation’s Future to
illustrate the universal recognition among thought leaders that children
are not a major priority at the federal level, and that creative
solutions are needed to once again increase the federal investment in
children. The proposals included in this book encompass various issue
areas, including poverty, child health, early childhood, education, home
and community, child welfare, and child safety.
For more
information, click here.
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Academic Performance in Earlier Grades
Reliably Predicts Odds of Graduation, According to Alliance for
Excellent Education Using Early-Warning Data to Improve
Graduation Rates: Closing Cracks in the Education System, looks at the most
accurate early-warning indicators and considers how to develop
effective early-warning systems, how to put this data to work so
that students’ deficiencies are addressed, and how to use the data
effectively at the school and district levels. The brief also
examines policies to support the implementation of these systems as
well as implications for federal policy that supports the innovative
use of academic data to make effective decisions about education
policy and practice.
Using Early-Warning Data to Improve
Graduation Rates: Closing Cracks in the Education System is
available at
http://www.all4ed.org/files/EWI.pdf
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IES Practice Guides provide practical
recommendations for educators to help them address the everyday
challenges they face in their classrooms and schools. Developed by a
panel of nationally recognized experts, practice guides consist of
actionable recommendations, strategies for overcoming potential
roadblocks, and an indication of the strength of evidence supporting
each recommendation. IES practice guides are subjected to rigorous
external peer review.
Cities in Crisis, a new report released by the America's Promise Alliance on
April 1, 2008 finds that America's largest cities are struggling to keep
students in school. (Adobe PDF)
Democracy at Risk, an April 2008 report from the Forum for Education and
Democracy, calls for a new federal role in supporting our schools. (Adobe PDF)
Children’s
Budget 2008, a report from First Focus, is a comprehensive guide of the over
180 different children’s programs funded by the federal government, from
child health and education to child welfare and juvenile justice.
Has Student Achievement Increased Since 2002? State Test Score Trends
Through 2006-07. Using testing data from all 50 state, this study addresses
two key questions: has student achievement increased and have achievement
gaps narrowed since the No Child Left Behind Act was enacted in 2002. A
comparison is also made between state test results and results from the
National Assessment of Educational Progress.
What Content-Area Teachers Need to Know. National Literacy Institute (Adobe PDF)
Harvard Educational Review: The Spring 2008 issue of the Harvard Educational Review is dedicated to the importance of adolescent literacy. As the editors of the Review state, "In deciding to devote a Special Issue of the journal to the topic of adolescent literacy, we thought carefully about the role of literacy within the broader enterprise of education, and we asked ourselves two main questions: First, why literacy? And second, why adolescent literacy in particular? Our answer to the first question was straightforward: If knowledge is power, then literacy is the key to the kingdom."
Mass Insight Education & Research Institute: The Turn Around Challenge: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation awarded the Mass Insight and Education & Research Institute a grant late in 2005 to produce a framework for states and districts seeking a flexible, systemic approach for swift, significant improvement in schools (particularly high schools) that have clearly failed their mission, producing track records of under-achievement that are indefensibly poor. The Turnaround Challenge and corollary resources are the result of the grant.
Learning in a Global Age: Knowledge and Skills for a Flat World, Asia Pacific Forum Report, The Asia-Pacific Forum on Education in 2006 brought together policy leaders and education innovators from Asia and the United States to discuss preparing students for a global age. This report summarizes the presentations and discussions from the Forum, which examined the need for world-class education standards, the importance of creating educational environments that foster talent and innovation, and the necessity of reducing inequity in educational provision and quality across countries.
Chinese in 2008: An Expanding Field is based is based on the findings of the first national Conference on Chinese in April of 2008. Organized by Asia Society and the College Board, the event asked the following questions: What progress has been made in the teaching of Chinese over the past three years and what are some of the challenges that need to be addressed? The report summarizes the events findings on these topics.
International Benchmarking: International Benchmarking is the alignment of standards, instruction, professional development and assessment to those of the highest-performing countries. This Blueprint presents the rationale why states should consider benchmarking to international standards as well as describing policy recommendations for policymakers and education leaders. This is the first action guide of its kind to enable states, districts and schools to craft new policies and adjust existing policies proven to demonstrate world-class performance.
Going Global: Preparing U.S. Students for an Interconnected World. To help prepare American students for the 21st century, Asia Society has published a guidebook to assist secondary schools in developing students' international knowledge and skills. http://asiasociety.org/education/pgl/publications.htm
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