For three weeks in the summer, children who are entering kindergarten in Portland, Oregon, get ready and get excited to start school. While it’s no substitute for pre-K, getting a preview helps ease the transition for kids, and offers parents a sense of connection. Special correspondent Lisa Stark of Education Week reports.

This visualization presents findings from our report Evaluating the Relationships Between Poverty and School Performance and gives you the chance to explore how your school site compares to schools from the sample.

This study examined the relationships between poverty and a school’s academic performance (both student achievement and growth). Educators, advocates, and policymakers can use these data to shape how people look at the performance of schools in their communities and to inform education policy (e.g., the effect of evaluating schools based on achievement vs. growth).

Evidence that suggests principals’ knowledge and skills in relation to assessment leadership—such as incorporating professional development, use of assessment data in classroom planning, and nurturing professional collaboration on matters of student achievement and instruction—are of fundamental importance to building assessment literacy among their teachers.

Most of us believe that when individuals have goals, their performance improves, and this belief is being put to the test in schools today. In an effort to create alignment between district and school improvement efforts, teachers are more likely than ever to have formal performance goals.

In this study from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, achievement trends from NWEA’s longitudinal growth database were used to track students who scored at or above the 90th percentile on this assessment in order to see if they maintained their high achievement.

The problems faced within education resemble the problems in many social settings in that they lack clear definitions, have many potential causes, lack simple solutions, and defy straightforward measurement. In this article, Andrew Hegedus shares a view on the types of problems faced in education and outlines key characteristics of a process that begins with collecting data and ends with evaluating progress.