Our guides provide thoughtful, practical analyses of current issues in public education.
Money matters
School boards are the education watchdog for their communities, ensuring that students get the best education for the tax dollars spent. But where does the money come from and how is it spent? Could you answer these questions, or evaluate your district's budget? If not, read more in this guide, which contains:
A primer on K-12 school funding: The full report on school funding.
Basic facts: A one-page handout of facts about school funding.
Q&A: Frequently-asked questions about school funding.
Going for the green: One school's experience and advice on finding grants.
How to dig deeper: How to find the facts about your own district's funding.
Tracking the education dollar: An example of how one state's education dollar gets spent.
References: The research behind the guide.
The proficiency debate
How do state assessments compare with the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)—a nationwide test often called The Nation’s Report Card. Do states set their standards too low, are students lagging behind, or is the NAEP "bar" unrealistic?
At-a-glance. A summary of key points to keep in mind when comparing your state's assessment scores to NAEP's.
The proficiency debate: A guide to NAEP achievement levels. A full review of state assessments and NAEP.
Resources
Figures and tables
Additional resources
Score Wars
Standards and testing
How difficult are NAEP questions? Test yourself and see.
Changing demographics
Demographic trends have important implications for everyone involved in a school community. As the face of our nation changes, so must school policies and practices. How schools respond will play a crucial role in the future well-being of the nation.
At-a-glance. A summary of key points to keep in mind while exploring demographic data.
The United States of Education: A guide to our changing demographics and their implications for public schools. A guide to help public school leaders and policy makers explore shifting demographics and what to do about them.
Appendix. Tables that show how the population is changing in your state.
Growth models
How can you tell which student achieved more, a high-scoring student who started out as a high-performer or an average-scoring student who started at the bottom? Find out about the different kinds of growth models and how they can help you answer these questions and more.
At-a-glance. A summary of key points to keep in mind when exploring growth models.
Measuring student growth: A guide for informed decision making. An exploration into the various kinds of growth models and how to use them.
NCLB Pilot Growth Models Summaries
References
Archived Chat: Doing Growth Right, December 6, 2007.
Presentation — Using Student Growth at the District Level: A guide to informed decision-making (Powerpoint)
High school graduation rates
These materials on high school graduation rates explain why the experts disagree about how many students are graduating from high school, show how to interpret the numbers that are out there, and describe what you can do at the local level to calculate accurate and reliable graduation rates so that your community can focus on making sure all students leave high school with a diploma.
At-a-glance: Calculating high school graduation rates. A summary of key points to keep in mind when examining high school graduation rates.
Calculating high school graduation rates. A step-by-step guide to understanding various ways of calculating high school graduation rates and recommendations for things districts can do to collect, analyze and report graduation rates that tell the whole story about high school completion in your community.
Archived chat, "The Straight Story on High School Graduation Rates," June 22, 2006
International assessments
U.S. scores on international tests make great media copy, but what do they really mean? Some say they’re proof that American schools are broken. Others say that the crisis-mongering is overblown. The fact is, our students aren’t failing, but they’re not number one, either. Learn more about how the U.S. really stacks up internationally and what lessons these comparisons can offer. The documents below will help sort you sort out the facts.
More than a horse race: A guide to international assessments of student achievement.
Criticisms of international assessments: Fact or fiction?
At-a-glance guide to international assessments of student achievement
(Presentation) More than a Horse Race: How the United States compares to other countries and what we can learn from the results [Powerpoint] [PDF]
Archived Chat, "International Assessments and Student Achievement," Feb. 1, 2007
Global competitiveness fact sheet
National and state assessments
Score wars: Comparing the National Assessment of Educational Progress with state assessments
Table: Comparison of national and state assessments
No Child Left Behind Act
A guide to the No Child Left Behind Act
Una guía hacia la ley Que Ningún Niño se Quede Atrás (NCLB)
Standards and testing
The nature of assessment: A guide to standardized tests
Table: Types of tests required in each stateStandards-based reform
Standards-based reform
Consumer's guide to education research
This guide is for anyone who finds the subject of research daunting. It provides descriptions of various types of research methods, how they are used, and what they are used for.
Q&A: Finding credible research directs consumers to the various venues for reporting research, things to look out for, and how to assess the good, the bad, and the ugly.
At a Glance: Common definitions for technical research terms provides definitions and examples for better understanding.
