Search Results: (1-15 of 24 records)
| Pub Number | Title |  Date |
|---|---|---|
| IES 20096010 | Rigor and Relevance Redux: Director's Biennial Report to Congress
The Institute of Education Sciences has issued the third and final Director's Biennial Report to Congress to be prepared by the Institute's first director, Dr. Grover J. (Russ) Whitehurst. Required by the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002, the report includes a description of the activities of IES and its four National Education Centers, as well as a summary of all IES grants and contracts during the biennium in excess of $100,000. The report also includes the Director's recommendations for continued progress and effectiveness of IES. Among the report's highlights:
|
11/21/2008 |
| NBES 20096011 | National Board for Education Sciences 5-Year Report, 2003 Through 2008
The framework for the Institute’s nonideological, high-quality work was wisely established by Congress in the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA). Because that Act has generated such strong results, the Board is recommending its rapid reauthorization, with a set of modest amendments meant to improve its clarity and make it even stronger. The Board recognizes that transformation of education into an evidence-based field is an enormous task. It will need to involve everyone from federal and state policymakers to local education leaders, administrators, teachers, and parents. Over the past 6 years, a new direction has been set for education research. We now need to stay on course to arrive at this destination. This report presents the Board’s evaluation of the Institute. The Board examined the ways in which and the extent to which the Institute has been successful in advancing the rigor and improving the relevance of education research, and facilitating evidence-based decisionmaking. |
11/20/2008 |
| NCEE 20094036 | Enhanced Reading Opportunities: Findings from the Second Year of Implementation: Report from the Preschool Curriculum Evaluation Research Initiative
The report, Enhanced Reading Opportunities: Findings from the Second Year of Implementation presents findings from an ongoing evaluation of the impact of two supplemental literacy programs — Reading Apprenticeship Academic Literacy (RAAL) and Xtreme Reading (XR) — that aim to improve the reading comprehension skills and school performance of struggling ninth-grade readers. The report describes the effects of the programs on the second cohort of students entering high school two to five years behind grade level in reading. Taken together, the programs produced a statistically significant impact on reading comprehension among the students who were randomly assigned to participate in the supplemental literacy programs equivalent to 1 to 2 months of instruction compared to those who did not participate in the programs. Analyzed separately, RAAL had a statistically significant impact on reading comprehension while XR did not have a statistically significant impact on reading comprehension. No statistically significant impacts were found on student’s vocabulary test scores or their use of reading behaviors promoted by the programs. |
11/20/2008 |
| NCEE 20094038 | Reading First Impact Study Final Report
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 created the Reading First program to help ensure that all students can read at or above grade level by the end of third grade. The law required an independent, rigorous evaluation of the program. The Reading First Impact Study Final Report provides an update of previously released impact findings on student reading comprehension and classroom reading instruction using an additional year of data (2006-07). In addition, the report includes information on the impact of the program on first grade students’ decoding skill in 2006-07 as well as an examination of the relationship between classroom instruction and student reading comprehension. The results indicate that Reading First produced statistically significant positive impacts on multiple reading practices promoted by the program, such as the amount of instructional time spent on the five essential components of reading instruction and professional development in scientifically based reading instruction. Reading First did not produce a statistically significant impact on student reading comprehension test scores in grades one, two or three. However, there was a positive and statistically significant impact on first grade students’ decoding skills in spring 2007. |
11/19/2008 |
| NCEE 20094034 | Impacts of Comprehensive Teacher Induction: Results from the First Year of a Randomized Controlled Study
The report, Impacts of Comprehensive Teacher Induction: Results from the First Year of a Randomized Controlled Study, presents implementation and impact findings for beginning elementary school teachers after one year of induction services. The study tests whether comprehensive teacher induction affects teacher retention rates, classroom practices, and student achievement, compared to the induction programs that districts normally provide. Beginning teachers in schools randomly assigned to receive comprehensive induction services were offered weekly mentoring from a full-time mentor (who provided services such as observing the beginning teacher in his/her classroom and providing feedback), opportunities to observe other teachers in their classrooms, and professional development workshops on topics such as classroom management and lesson planning. Two comprehensive induction providers were included in the study &,dash; the Educational Testing Service and the New Teacher Center at the University of California-Santa Cruz. |
10/28/2008 |
| NCEE 20084028 | A Study of Classroom Literacy Interventions and Outcomes in Even Start
The report, A Study of Classroom Literacy Interventions and Outcomes in Even Start, presents findings from the 2-year implementation of research-based, literacy-focused preschool and parenting education curricula in 120 Even Start Family Literacy projects. The Classroom Literacy Interventions and Outcomes (CLIO) study examined whether the CLIO preschool and parenting education curricula are more effective than existing Even Start instructional services and the extent to which the CLIO parenting education curricula add value to the CLIO preschool curricula. The evaluation found that the CLIO curricula had statistically significant, positive impacts on some of the hypothesized precursors to the development of children’s early literacy skills, including instructional supports for literacy, child social competence, and parenting skills; but did not have statistically significant impacts on the child language development and literacy outcomes. The evaluation also found that the CLIO parenting curricula did not significantly add value to the CLIO preschool curricula with respect to child outcomes. |
9/30/2008 |
| NCEE 20084034 | The Impact of Two Professional Development Interventions on Early Reading Instruction and Achievement
The report, The Impact of Two Professional Development Interventions on Early Reading Instruction and Achievement, describes the effectiveness of two specific professional development strategies in improving the knowledge and practice of 2nd grade teachers in high-poverty schools and the reading achievement of their students. Both the 8-day content-focused institutes series (treatment A) and the institute series plus in-school coaching (treatment B) produced positive impacts on teachers' knowledge of scientifically based reading instruction and on one of the three instructional practices promoted by the professional development. However, neither intervention resulted in significantly higher student test scores at the end of the one-year implementation period. The institute series plus in-school coaching did not produce a significantly greater impact on teacher practice than the institute series alone. |
9/22/2008 |
| NBES 20086009 | National Board for Education Sciences 2008 Annual Report: August 2007 through July 2008
On November 5, 2002, Congress passed the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA), establishing the Institute of Education Sciences (IES, or the Institute) and its board of directors, the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES, or the Board). The Institute reports to Congress yearly on the condition of education in the United States. The Institute provides thorough and objective evaluations of federal programs, sponsors research relevant and useful to educators and others (such as policymakers), and serves as a trusted source of unbiased information on what works in education. The NBES consists of voting and ex-officio members (see Appendix A). The 15 voting members of the Board are nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate. Members Richard Milgram and Herbert Walberg completed their respective terms in November 2007. Board chair Craig Ramey finished his term in March 2008. In 2007 and 2008, the President nominated and the Senate confirmed the following individuals to serve a second term on the Board: Jonathan Baron, Carol D'Amico, F. Philip Handy, Eric Hanushek, and Sally Shaywitz. In November 2008, the Board will have nine member vacancies without taking into account nominations and pending confirmations beyond the release of this report. During this reporting period (August 2007 through July 2008), the Board held meetings in September 2007 and January and May 2008. |
9/5/2008 |
| NBES 20086005 | National Board for Education Sciences 2007 Annual Report: August 2006 to July 2007
On November 5, 2002, Congress passed the Education Sciences Reform Act of 2002 (ESRA), establishing the Institute of Education Sciences (IES, or the Institute) and its advisory board, the National Board for Education Sciences (NBES, or the Board). The Institute reports to Congress yearly on the condition of education in the United States. The Institute provides thorough and objective evaluations of federal programs, sponsors research relevant and useful to educators and others (such as policymakers), and serves as a trusted source of gold-standard, reliable, unbiased information on what works in education. |
6/20/2008 |
| NCEE 20084023 | Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Two Years
The DC School Choice Incentive Act of 2003 established the first federally funded private school voucher program in the United States, providing scholarships of up to $7,500 for low-income residents of the District of Columbia to send their children to local participating private schools. The law also mandated that the Department conduct an independent, rigorous impact evaluation of what is now called the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program. The study's latest report, Evaluation of the DC Opportunity Scholarship Program: Impacts After Two Years, found no significant differences in student achievement between those who were offered scholarships to attend a participating private school and those who were eligible for, but were not offered (as assigned by a lottery) a scholarship. However, being offered a scholarship may have improved reading test scores among three subgroups of relatively more advantaged students: those who had not attended a School in Need of Improvement (SINI) school when they applied to the program, those who had relatively higher pre-program academic performance, and those who applied in the first year of program implementation. Students in the program did not report being more satisfied or feeling safer than those who were not in the program. However, the program did have a positive impact on parent satisfaction and perceptions of school safety. This same pattern of findings holds when the analysis is conducted to determine the impact of using a scholarship rather than being offered a scholarship and when estimating the effects of attending private school versus public school, regardless of whether an Opportunity Scholarship Program scholarship was used. |
6/16/2008 |
| NCEE 20084021 | The Evaluation of Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs: Findings After the First Year of Implementation
The report, Enhanced Academic Instruction in After-School Programs, is the first of two reports and presents implementation and impact findings after one year of program operation. This study tests whether interventions of structured approaches to academic instruction in after-school programs (one for reading and one for math) produce better academic outcomes than regular after-school services that consist primarily of help with homework or locally assembled materials that do not follow a structured curriculum. Compared to students attending regular after-school program activities, the students selected for the after-school math program received, on average, an additional 49 hours of instruction; students selected for the reading program received 48 hours of additional instruction, on average. The evaluation found a statistically significant difference in student achievement between students in the math after-school program and those in the regular after-school activities. In study sites implementing the reading program, there was no statistically significant difference in reading achievement between students in the reading after-school program and those in the regular after-school activities. |
6/10/2008 |
| NCEE 20084016 | Reading First Impact Study: Interim Report
Created under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001, the Reading First program provides assistance to states and districts in using research-based reading programs and instructional materials for students in kindergarten through third grade and in introducing related professional development and assessments. The program's purpose is to ensure that increased proportions of students read at or above grade level, have mastery of the essential components of early reading, and that all students can read at or above grade level by the end of grade 3. The law requires that an independent, rigorous evaluation of the program be conducted to determine if the program influences teaching practices, mastery of early reading components, and student reading comprehension. This interim report presents the impacts of Reading First on classroom reading instruction and student reading comprehension during the 2004-05 and 2005-06 school years. The evaluation found that Reading First did have positive, statistically significant impacts on the total class time spent on the five essential components of reading instruction promoted by the program. The study also found that, on average across the 18 study sites, Reading First did not have statistically significant impacts on student reading comprehension test scores in grades 1–3. A final report on the impacts from 2004–2007 (three school years with Reading First funding) and on the relationships between changes in instructional practice and student reading comprehension is expected in late 2008. |
5/1/2008 |
| NCEE 20084015 | The Enhanced Reading Opportunities Study: Early Impact and Implementation Findings
The new report, Enhanced Reading Opportunities: Early Impact and Implementation Findings presents early findings from an evaluation of the impact of two supplemental literacy programs that aim to improve the reading comprehension skills and school performance of struggling ninth-grade readers. The report describes the effects of the programs on the first cohort of students entering high school two to five years behind grade level in reading. Taken together, the programs produced a statistically significant impact on reading comprehension among students who were randomly assigned to participate in the supplemental literacy programs compared to those who did not participate in the programs. There were no statistically significant impacts on student achievement in vocabulary or student use of reading behaviors promoted by the programs. |
1/28/2008 |
| NCEE 20084012 | National Assessment of Title I: Final Report
This two-volume report, and Summary of Key Findings, presents findings from the congressionally mandated National Assessment of Title I on the implementation and impact of the program. Volume I contains key findings on the implementation of the program under No Child Left Behind, and Volume II presents a report on follow-up findings from Closing the Reading Gap, an evaluation of the impact of supplemental remedial reading programs on achievement of 3rd and 5th grade students. As part of NCLB, the Congress mandated a National Assessment of Title I (Section 1501) to evaluate the implementation and impact of the program. This mandate also required the establishment of an Independent Review Panel (IRP) to advise the Secretary on methodological and other issues that arise in carrying out the National Assessment and the studies that contribute to this assessment. In addition, the law specifically requires a longitudinal study of Title I schools to examine the implementation and impact of the Title I program. Results from that study are included in Volume I. |
11/15/2007 |
| NCEE 20074007 | National Evaluation of Early Reading First: Final Report to Congress
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 created the Early Reading First (ERF) program to provide funding to preschools, particularly those that serve children from low-income families, to support the development of children's language and literacy skills. NCLB mandated that the Department conduct an independent evaluation of the ERF program to assess the impact of the program on both children's literacy skills as well as the instructional content and practices in preschool classrooms. Using a quasi-experimental design, the study found that the program had a positive impact on children's print and letter knowledge, but not on phonological awareness or oral language. The program had positive impacts on aspects of the classroom environment and teacher practices that are intended to support the development of language and literacy skills. |
6/4/2007 |
Publications & Products