McREL will analyze Superintendent Gary Norris' Next Generation Learning Plan and report to the district, and eventually the public, on whether it would work. The plan includes developing small learning communities and starting family advocacy programs at each high school.
Bruce Novak, Superintendent of Cambridge-Isanti (Minn.) School District, discusses the findings from the "Examining the meaning of accountability: Reframing the construct" study McREL conducted with the Kettering Foundation. This survey looks at what parents and other community members think "education accountability" means.
Bruce Randel, former senior research scientist at CTB/McGraw-Hill, has joined the staff of McREL as principal researcher, working primarily with client states on research issues around meeting the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act.
McREL announced today the development of a new online survey designed to help school principals determine how well their leadership practices align with those of effective principals identified in McREL's research on school-level leadership.
A new issues brief from McREL suggests that parents appear to have different expectations than lawmakers for what it means to hold schools accountable for student success.
McREL has recently completed a review of science standards for the state of Kansas. The review did not measure the scientific validity of the proposed standards, but instead judged them on their clarity, grammar, and grade-level expectations.
McREL has been awarded a $6.3 million, five-year contract from the U.S. Department of Education to serve as regional comprehensive center for the newly configured North Central region of Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The new center will provide research-based services help states improve student achievement in high-poverty schools in this region starting in October 2005.
The Great Falls (Mont.) Tribune reports that rural Harlem School District near the Canadian border has hired McREL to help teachers improve their classroom instruction in an effort to raise the achievement of its predominantly American Indian student population.
Administrators from North Platte, Gering and Ogallala, Neb. learned 21 leadership elements that influence student performance during a two-day Balanced Leadership training session with McREL Principal Consultant David Livingston. "Because leadership matters for kids, for me, that makes it important. I want to do everything I can to make growth possible for kids. That's why I'm here," Lincoln Elementary Principal Brian Horst commented on the training.
"How we frame the issue of college preparation is profoundly important to every student in our schools," writes McREL Principal Consultant David Livingston in a commentary on the implications and issues associated with preparing all students for a college education.
An independent research report released today by Harcourt Achieve, Inc. indicates that second- and fourth-grade students using Rigby Literacy for the first time showed strong gains in their reading performance. The independent study was conducted by Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) to evaluate the instructional effectiveness of the Rigby Literacy program on student performance in reading during the 2003-2004 school year.
McREL has received a $100,000, 18-month
grant from the U.S. Department of Education’s Institute
for Education Sciences to conduct an analysis of national
assessment data to identify teacher characteristics that
are related to student achievement in math.
A new policy brief from McREL reports
findings from the National Dialogue Standards-based Education,
a four-year project that engaged hundreds of participants
nationwide in community conversations about what it will
take to help all children achieve high academic standards.
Don Sweetnam, project manager for NASA’s
Genesis Mission, will provide fifth graders from Lois
Lenski Elementary School in Littleton, Colo. with an update on the
Genesis mission and what scientists hope to learn from the
information the probe brought back from outer space last
September.
The Atlanta Journal constitution reports
that prior to the Cobb County School Board adopting a laptop
program for the district, one Board member read from a 2004
McREL
policy brief, which notes that "research is beginning
to yield empirical evidence that such initiatives are improving
student achievement."
New research from McREL has identified
11 school leadership “responsibilities” that
appear to be essential for guiding difficult changes in schools— the
kinds of changes that principals may need lead in their schools
in order to meet the challenges of the No Child Left Behind
Act.
Gov. Bill Owens announced today that Tyler
Benton of Vona and Tara Clancy of Evergreen have been selected
as the two most promising young scientific leaders in Colorado’s
2005 high school graduating class.
Eleven McREL researchers and evaluators will present at the 2005 Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association in Montréal on April 11-15.
South Dakota educator Kathy Johannsen
recently met with a bipartisan coalition of Congressional
leaders concerned with rural education to carry a simple,
but important message: rural schools like hers in Alcester-Hudson
can and do improve, especially when they receive the kind
of support her school received from McREL.
As public school students begin taking the Hawaii State Assessment this month,
some educators and parents are raising concerns about the math part of the test,
which has stumped many students - even some who aced the national math SAT, or
Stanford Achievement Test.
Gov. Bill Owens invites Colorado high
school seniors with demonstrated science achievement and
potential for thoughtful scientific leadership to apply for
scholarships to the 2005 National Youth Science Camp®.
McREL senior science consultant Earl Legleiter will review
the applications and select the two most qualified students
to receive a full scholarship to attend the four-week camp.
Joe Robertson reports on the use of McREL’s
vocabulary exercises to help close the achievement gap in
a 24-school consortium in Missouri. “'If I don't know
the words, I can't do the work,' said Jane Doty, a consultant
with...McREL."
