Research and Best Practices
The largest in-depth study of school leadership to date, this report gathers and analyzes quantitative data confirming that education leadership has a strong impact on student achievement, as measured by student test scores. The study shows that leadership makes its mark largely by strengthening a school’s “professional community” – an environment where teachers work together to improve classroom instruction. It also finds that rapid turnover of principals reduces student achievement. In addition, the study shows that although the.....
Instruction Resources
Principal and Teacher Evaluation: A Compilation of Information and Resources for Schools and Districts Developing Educator Evaluation Tools
This document lists information and resources relating to principal and teacher evaluation that districts may find helpful as they develop tools to review a teacher's or principal’s performance. ACC has identified a number of tools, some of which provide examples that include student data in the evaluation process, which are research-based and offer promise as an effective practice. However, any resource’s inclusion or omission from this list does not constitute ACC’s endorsement or lack of endorsement.
Literacy Skills for the Social Studies Classroom
This source features information and strategies for helping students develop the reading and writing skills needed for success in the social studies classroom.
Uncharted Territory: Using Tiered Intervention to Improve High School Performance
A new report from the High School Tiered Interventions Initiative (HSTII), a collaboration among the National High School Center, the Center on Instruction, and the National Center on Response to Intervention, summarizes what HSTII has learned thus far about effective implementation of RTI in high schools.
Tiered Interventions in High Schools: Using Preliminary ‘Lessons Learned’ to Guide Ongoing Discussion, provides a brief description of the RTI framework and the essential components of RTI, illustrates how the essential components of.....
Principles for Culturally Responsive Teaching
This source describes seven characteristics of culturally responsive teaching:
1. Positive perspectives on parents and families
2. Communication of high expectations
3. Learning within the context of culture
4. Student-centered instruction
5. Culturally mediated instruction
6. Reshaping the curriculum
7. Teacher as facilitator
Space learning over time with review and quizzing
A key aspect of effective teaching and learning is helping students retain information over the course of the school year and beyond. Research has shown that exposing students to key concepts and facts on at least two occasions, separated by several weeks to several months, greatly reduces the rate at which information is forgotten. This is accomplished by spacing the introduction of material over time and by reviewing material with short quizzes, review games, targeted homework assignments, and exams.
View this multimedia overview to learn.....
Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices
For the purposes of this website, these recommendations have been merged into four practices: Vocabulary Instruction; Comprehension Strategies; Engaging Text Discussion; and Intensive Intervention. This Practice Guide was developed by an expert panel convened by the Institute of Education Sciences. It is designed to address challenges in improving literacy levels in middle and high school and providing interventions for struggling adolescent readers. The Practice Guide offers a set of five research-based recommendations. A summary of the.....
Resources for Designing ILPs for Students Who Have Not Passed the AKHSQE
This resource is for educators looking for ideas as they develop individual student learning plans for students who have not passed the AK HSQE.
Internet Explorers: Virtual Field Trips Are More Than Just Money Savers
Technology is catching up to virtual field trips' possibilities. A new generation of trips is merging highly interactive Web sites with engaging storytelling, vibrant art, and curricula tied to national standards, creating a compelling way to explore the natural world without leaving campus.
This link takes you to The George Lucas Foundation's top four virtual field trip picks -- and you can't beat the admission price: free.
Go North! is one of the virtual field trips. It is an exhilarating combination of high tech wizardry and true.....
everythingESL - Includes Links to Lesson Plans
This link takes you to everythingESL. It includes lesson plans for beginning through intermediate students.
Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy and Learning - Center for Education, Diversity and Excellence (CREDE)
The Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy and Learning were established through CREDE research, and through an extensive analysis of the research and development literature in education and diversity. The Standards represent recommendations on which the literature is in agreement, across all cultural, racial, and linguistic groups in the United States, all age levels, and all subject matters. Thus, they express the principles of effective pedagogy for all students. Even for mainstream students, the Standards describe the ideal conditions for.....
Intervention Report on three Voyager Reading Programs by the What Works Clearinghouse
What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) is releasing an Intervention Report on three Voyager Reading Programs. The three programs are Voyager Passport, a supplemental reading intervention system for students in grades K-5, Voyager Passport Reading Journeys, a reading intervention program designed for adolescents who struggle with reading, and Voyager Universal Literacy System, a K-3 reading program. The Clearinghouse examined the research on these Voyager reading programs for students with learning disabilities and identified 44 studies that were.....
WWC Intervention Report on the Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS) Program
WWC Intervention Report on the Lindamood Phoneme Sequencing (LiPS) program that is designed to teach students the skills they need to decode words and to identify individual sounds and blends in words. The Clearinghouse reviewed 31 studies that investigated the effects of LiPS on students with learning disabilities. One study that falls within the scope of the Students with Learning Disabilities review protocol meets What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) evidence standards. Based on this study, the WWC found LiPS to have potentially positive.....
Research base of individual learning plans at the high school level and its impact on student outcomes
The information provided addresses the origins and effectiveness of Individual Learning Plans (ILP) for all high school students. Although the use of ILPs may build upon the well established Individual Education Plan (IEP) for students with learning disabilities, it is not explicitly linked to that practice in the resources reviewed. (From the National High School Center)
School Turnaround Teachers: Competencies for Success
This guide aims to help schools attempting turnarounds understand the underlying characteristics of teachers likely to succeed in this unique context, based on the best available research to date. Interestingly, the characteristics identified by early research on star teachers in high-poverty schools are remarkably similar to the competencies exhibited by turnaround leaders across sectors. This is not surprising given the similarities of the roles, explained further within this guide. As more schools attempt turnarounds, increasingly accurate,.....
Use of Education Data at the Local Level: From Accountability to Instructional Improvement
The U.S. Department of Education recently published the results of a study examining the characteristics of data systems and their use at the classroom level. More specifically, it looked at what types of student data systems were available to school staff, how school staff were using the systems and other forms of student data, teachers' understanding of data displays and data interpretation issues, and the supports and challenges for school-level use of student data in planning and implementing instruction.
Literacy Instruction in the Content Areas: Getting to the Core of Middle and High School Improvement
This report from the Alliance for Excellent Education contends that content teachers at the middle and secondary levels should engage their students in literacy training through integrated reading and writing activities that teach students how to recognize the particular conventions specific to the different subjects. The report concludes with practical policy goals to foster a greater integration of literacy training and content matter.
TQ Resource Library (Publications Database) (National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality)
In the last several years alone, hundreds of books and articles about teacher quality and leadership quality issues have been written. Using standardized criteria to evaluate many of these publications, Learning Point Associates has assembled a database with detailed information about many of the most significant teacher quality publications of the past 20 years.
The TQ Source publications database houses information for publications in the following issue areas: preparation, recruitment and retention, certification and licensure,.....
Technical Assistance Toolbox from National Center for Teacher Quality
In this Technical Assistance Toolbox you will find examples of technical assistance available from the National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality Center, answers to Frequently asked questions, and descriptions of how to use our large collection of content-rich resources to assist in your efforts to improve teacher quality in your region and state.
