Present Level of Performance - States, Districts, and Individual Schools

Graphs Showing Status of Public School Education in the United States - U.S. Department of Education

International Math and Science Proficiency Scores, 8th Grade Math and Science - International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement - from the U. S. House of Representatives website

Grading the Systems: The guide to state standards, tests, and accountability policies -Thomas B. Fordham Foundation

State Education Accountability and Indicator Reports - Status of Reports across the States- by Council of Chief State School Officers (order print copy or download PDF)

Secretary's Fourth Annual Report on Teacher Quality - Secretary of Education

Quality Counts 2004: Count Me In - Special Education in an Era of Standards EDUCATION WEEK's eighth annual state-by-state report card on public education, addresses the issue of how to include students with disabilities in accountability systems in a way that's fair and appropriate. The report includes state data on standards and accountability policies and the results of a survey of 800 general and special education teachers. (order print copy or download PDF)

States with Approved Systems for State-wide Testing

No Child Left Behind Database - by Education Commission of the States - Compliance status and state plans for all 50 states

The Nation's Report Card - National Center for Education Statistics

National directory of school and school district report cards - New Hampshire -

High Schools Producing the Most Dropouts Identified - Robert Balfanz and Nettie Legters, Center for Social Organization of Schools, Johns Hopkins University, June 2004 - Using data compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics, researchers compared the number of freshmen in each school to the number of seniors there four years later. The results indicate that the dropout crisis is fueled by the 20 percent of high schools in which graduation is not the norm. Nearly half of the country's African American students and two out of five Latino students attend one of these "dropout factories," compared with just 11 percent of America's white students.

TC (Teacher Quality) Source - a national database providing resources for the issues of teacher preparation, recruitment, and retention. Contains -
•Policy information for all 50 states.
•User-customized graphs and tables  
•Summaries of research and publications.
•Information about current teaching quality initiatives and programs.


Community Involvement

"As a parent there are 12 things you need to know about and expect from your school ... and yourself" - by Parent Leadership Associates -
1 parent = A fruitcake
2 parents = A fruitcake and a friend
3 parents = Troublemakers
5 parents = “Let’s have a meeting”
10 parents = “We’d better listen”
25 parents = “Our dear friends”
50 parents = A powerful organization

Best Practices for Producing Community-wide Study Circles - What Works: Study Circles in the Real World is a practical, short compilation of best practices in organizing community-wide study circles that can engage the community with the public schools. These include strategies such as creating a broad-based coalition, supporting facilitators, recruiting diverse participants, contributing to change, and linking dialogue with action. Drawn from a two-year research study conducted by Roberts & Kay, Inc. for the Study Circles Resource Center, the publication and the full research report are available in pdf format.

Diversity: School, Family, and Community Connections is the third in a series of reports to help local school, community, and family leaders obtain useful research-based information about key educational issues. This synthesis focuses specifically on three categories: race or ethnicity, culture (including language), and socioeconomic status. The report also explores barriers to involvement for minority and low-income families, strategies that have been used to address those barriers, and recommendations that local educational leaders can adapt to address their specific needs. It is based on a review of over 64 studies. Print copies are available.

A New Wave of Evidence: The Impact of School, Family, and Community Connections on Student Achievement - by Southwest Educational Development Laboratory

Research Connections in Special Education - Improving Family Involvement in Special Education - by Office of Special Education Programs

Using Free Tutoring to Improve Your Schools -
The website
The publication - SES in Action: A Toolkit for Parents and Community Leaders

Tapping America's Potential - The Education for Innovation Initiative - by The Business Roundtable



Effective Practices

Database of evidence-based research on reading instruction - A searchable database offered by the Partnership for Reading, an initiative of the National Institute for Literacy, National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and the U.S. Department of Education

What Works Clearinghouse - U.S. Department of Education

Using Research and Reason in Education - How Teachers Can Use Scientifically Based Research to Make Curricular & Instructional Decisions, by Paula J. Stanovich and Keith E. Stanovich, University of Toronto, published by the Partnership for Reading, May 2003

Using Data to Influence Classroom Decisions

Discipline and Positive Behavior Supports

Grade Retention and Mental Health Outcomes - by National Association of School Psychologists

Research Connections in Special Education - Paraeducators - by Office of Special Education Programs

Best Practices for High -Performing School Districts - National Center for Educational Accountability



School Reorganization and Reform

Learning Together, Leading Together: Changing School Through Professional Learning Communities
Southwest Educational Development Laboratory - offers practical advice gathered from 22 schools (elementary, middle, and high schools) that have successfully modeled or are creating professional learning communities.

Moving NSDC's Staff Development Standards into Practice

Fordham Institute releases Consumers Guide to High School History Textbooks -- Is your child reading from a mediocre history textbook? Based on reviews of a dozen of the most widely used high-school U.S. and world history texts, published in the recently released Consumer’s Guide to High School History Textbooks, the chances are good that s/he is. In this review, eminent education historian Diane Ravitch finds that the textbooks are dull, graphics-laden tomes that don’t do a good job of teaching history. This report is the fourth in our series Back to Basics: Reclaiming Social Studies, a Fordham initiative that aims to revitalize social studies with renewed emphasis on high standards, effective teaching, and sound instructional materials.

The Search Institute (a youth development institute) has published Boosting Student Achievement: New Research on the Power of Developmental Assets which found that "The difference in academic performance three years later between those [students] who had very few assets and those who were asset rich is equal to the difference between a C and a B+ average." The report includes a list of 40 external and internal developmental assets developed by the Institute.

Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning (McREL) researchers reviewed 371 Studies on Out-of-School-Time (OST) strategies for improving reading and math achievement for low-achieving or at-risk students and identified 56 methodologically rigorous studies for analysis. They found that statistically significant increases in achievement resulted from OST interventions and that grade level and type of intervention affected the results. Download the two-page research brief or the 113-page report, both in pdf format.

Identifying and Implementing Educational Practices Supported by Rigorous Evidence: A User Friendly Guide and Table of Contents

Good Teaching Matters: How Well-qualified Teachers Can Close the Gap

The America Diploma Project - Creating a High School Diploma that Counts



State Academic Content Standards - What each state has determined that all students need to know and be able to do in each grade

They may be called "Curriculum", "Grade Level Expectations", "Curriculum Frameworks", or "Academic Content Standards"

New Hampshire's Curriculum Frameworks



Stay Informed - Inform Others

Free Education Newsletters
Information Flyers


Records Laws

Open Meeting / Open Records Laws
New Hampshire

Education Records of an Individual
Family Education Records and Privacy Act (FERPA)
FERPA articles and resources



Where to go for Additional Help

U.S. Department of Education
Home page
Office of Civil Rights
Office of Inspector General
Office of Special Education Programs

Department of Education - New Hampshire

Medicaid
Information on eligibility for children with disabilities
Reporting Medicaid Fraud

No Child Left Behind Contacts
all states



Grants

A new government website will help organizations find grant opportunities from all federal grant-making agencies as well as apply for them on-line. The list of participating agencies continues to grow and includes the U.S. Departments of Commerce, Defense, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Interior, Justice, Labor, and Transportation. There are a variety of search options, a tutorial, and a newsletter.

Grants Newsletters
ED Info - To subscribe, address an e-mail
message to: listserv@inet.ed.gov Then write either SUBSCRIBE EDINFO YOURFIRSTNAME YOURLASTNAME in the message (if you have a signature block, please turn it off) Then send it!

SchoolGrants Biweekly Newsletter



Using NCLB to Improve Schools

No Child Left Behind State Accountability Plans - all states

NCLB / Title I Allocations to School Districts - for every school district in every state

NCLB / Title I Allocations to Individual schools - for every school in every state
Type in the information about the school you are interested in. A box will pop-up with information about the school. Click on "More Information" at the top of that box. A new screen will show. The second section of that box indicates whether the school receives Title I funds.

No Child Left Behind - A Parents Guide - English ~ Spanish

A Toolkit for Teachers

Creating Strong District School Choice Programs.

Creating Strong Supplemental Educational Service Programs

Checklist of questions and tips for parents, schools, and the community - U.S. Department of Education

Other NCLB resources



Websites

Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

Brown Center on Education Policy (Brookings Institute)

Center on Education Policy

Center for Research on the Education of Students Placed at Risk (CRESPAR)

Consortium for Policy Research in Education (CPRE)

Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO)

Council of the Great City Schools

Council for Basic Education

Education Next

Education Trust

Institute for Educational Leadership

LDonline

National Association of Elementary School Principals

National Association of School Psychologist

National Association of Secondary School Principals

Teaching LD

The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation

Wrightslaw