'What Works' Process for Assessing Studies Called Valid
A congressionally requested study of the federal research-review agency cheers federal officials but leaves critics unsatisfied. (November 21, 2008)
No Effect on Comprehension Seen From 'Reading First'
The $6 billion spent on the program has helped students with basic decoding but not with understanding, a major study finds. (November 19, 2008)
Project Probes Digital Media's Effect on Ethics
Noted Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner is leading a team studying the social and ethical norms of young people on the Web. 
Video (November 14, 2008)
Program Lets Urban Districts Call Shots on Research
A fellowship program funds studies designed to cater more to educators’ real-world concerns than to the expectations of academia. (November 6, 2008)
Analysis Tracks Teachers’ Use of Discretionary Leave Time
Like other professionals, teachers appear to be dipping into their sick time in order to run errands, do holiday shopping, or extend a weekend, a new analysis suggests. (November 3, 2008)
Intensive Induction Shows Little Impact
A new study of two programs found they did not noticeably change teachers’ instructional practices, boost rates of teacher retention, or improve student-achievement outcomes, after a year of implementation. (October 30, 2008)
Preschool Rating Systems Need Fine-Tuning, Study Says
The use of rating scales as a way to encourage child-care centers and preschools to improve their programs continues to grow in popularity across the states, even as researchers say states need to do more to share what they find and to demonstrate whether rating systems improve learning. (October 28, 2008)
Overhaul School Finance Systems, Researchers Urge
Policymakers need to turn the nation’s school finance systems on their head by connecting education dollars to student-achievement goals and outcomes, according to a study released today. (October 27, 2008)
Study Will Size Up Doctoral Programs for Education Researchers
Two national education groups are launching a first-time effort to assess—and possibly even rank—the hundreds of doctoral programs that prepare education researchers. (October 24, 2008)
U.S. Urban Students Middling vs. Foreign Peers
Six out of 11 U.S. city school systems performed at or above the average for developed nations in 4th grade math, according to an analysis linking national and international test results. Only two of the 11 districts beat out the 8th grade average. (October 22, 2008)
Researchers Piloting 'Accessible' Guidelines
Checklist of questions helps test creators avoid needless confusion for students with disabilities. (October 20, 2008)
American Culture Seen to Thwart Girls' Math Development
New research finds that many countries consistently produce a higher percentage of girls with elite math skills than the United States does, which it attributes to a tendency in American society to discourage girls from pursuing those studies. (October 17, 2008)
'Gifted' Label Said to Miss Dynamic Nature of Talent
For years, academically gifted children were thought to fit neatly into a category. But developmental psychologists are learning that people who are gifted are not categorized quite so neatly. (October 14, 2008)
Top U.S. Education Research Officials to Step Down
The chiefs of the Institute of Education Sciences and the National Center for Education Statistics led the push to make school research a more evidence-based field. (October 10, 2008)
Testing Expert Sees ‘Illusions of Progress’ Under NCLB
In his new book, Harvard University researcher Daniel M. Koretz has some good news and some bad news for policymakers looking ahead to the reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. (September 30, 2008)
Absences in Early Grades Tied to Learning Lags
New analysis joins a small but growing body of research on absenteeism in the early grades. (September 30, 2008)
The many calls for "evidence based" decisionmaking notwithstanding, says Eric Schaps, the sad reality is that research has had less constructive influence during the past 10 to 15 years than it did before.
A recent decision by the College Board may make it harder to extend the advantages of Latin to the students likely to gain the most from them, warns teacher Lee T. Pearcy.
Remember America’s Education Problem?
"With financial disaster all around, it’s understandable that education is no longer at the top of the list of domestic concerns. But why has it disappeared almost completely from the public’s radar?," asks Brian Crosby.
The State of Special Education in the U.S.
EPE Research Center Director Christopher B. Swanson moderated a lively and wide-ranging discussion among leading experts on critical issues shaping special education in the nation’s schools.
Make your own custom tables, graphs, and maps with more than 1,000 state-level education-policy indicators using the Education Counts database.
Judging U.S. Students on a World Scale (May Not Be as Easy as You Think)
A recent study found that if states were compared against foreign nations, their performance would be mediocre, at best.
—Sean Cavanagh, Curriculum Matters
Students who participated in the Advanced Placement program were more likely to score higher on college-entrance exams, a new study says.
(October 8, 2008)
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An archive of the June 24 interactive presentation and discussion of the key findings from this year’s annual Diplomas Count report is now available.
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