Overview of the Recovery Act

The Department and many of its grantees have a variety of items that may be useful as states and districts identify how to best spend Recovery Act funds .

• Effective Use of Data
  Information to help identify ways to improve student learning, teacher performance, and college and career-readiness through enhanced data systems that track progress.

• Improving Teacher Quality
  Information to help make improvements in teacher effectiveness and ensure that all schools have highly qualified teachers

• Turning Around Low-Performing Schools
  Information to support improvements in achievement in low-performing schools through intensive support and effective interventions in those schools

Effective Use of Data

• Doing What Works: Using Data for Improvement
  U.S. Department of Education
  A media-rich website to help educators implement research-based practices around effectively using data; includes best practice examples of school sites and self-assessment tools to help improve practice.

• State-by-State Database
  Center on Innovation and Improvement
  A state-by-state breakdown of policies, practices and programs, including tracking data, contact names, and links to SEA websites.

• Approaches to Dropout Prevention: Heeding Early Warning Signs With Appropriate Interventions PDF
  National High School Center
  Steps that schools can take to identify at-risk students and provide the necessary support systems and relevant interventions to assist students in obtaining a high school diploma, especially through the use of early warning data systems to target interventions

• State Approaches to More Reliable and Uniform Dropout and Graduation Data PDF
  National High School Center
  A snapshot of work currently underway around calculating more accurate dropout and graduation data, examining two prominent methods for calculating graduation rates: the National Governors Association's endorsed longitudinal approach; and the Averaged Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR).

• Dropout Prevention for Students With Disabilities: A Critical Issue for State Education Agencies PDF
  National High School Center
  Guidance to states as they respond to requirements presented in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) in the area of dropout prevention for students with disabilities.

• Developing Early Warning Systems to Identify Potential High School Dropouts PDF
  National High School Center
  A discussion of the factors that help predict the probability that individual students will eventually drop out of high school prior to graduating, and step-by-step instructions for building an early warning system.

• Early Warning System Tool MSExcel
  National High School Center
  A tool allowing educators to input student-level data and automatically calculate whether individual students are on track to graduate or at risk of dropping out. (Please maximize the document's screen in Excel in order to access all the spreadsheet tabs in the tool.)

• A Comprehensive K-3 Reading Assessment Plan: Guidance for School Leaders PDF
  Center on Instruction
  Provides guidance to school leaders about a comprehensive assessment plan as a critical element of a school-level plan for preventing reading difficulties.

• Curriculum-Based Measurement in mathematics: An Evidence-Based Formative Assessment Procedure PDF
  Center on Instruction
  Report which describes Mathematics Curriculum-Based-Measurement (M-CBM) including a brief history of curriculum based measurement, basic procedures, implications for practice, and additional resources.

• Practical Guidelines for the Education of English Language Learners: Research-based Recommendations for the Use of Accommodations in Large-scale Assessments PDF
  Center on Instruction
  Provides research-based recommendations on the use of accommodations to increase the valid participation of ELLs in large-scale assessments.

Improving Teacher Quality

• Doing What Works: Increasing Teacher Effectiveness
  U.S. Department of Education
  A media-rich website to help educators implement research-based practices around improving the effectiveness of teachers, such as collaboration and high-quality professional development; includes best practice examples of school sites and self-assessment tools to help improve practice.

• Recruiting Teachers for Schools Serving English Language Learners
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  Strategies and resources to help develop creative and comprehensive recruitment strategies to ensure that all ELLs can be served by highly qualified teachers.

• Recruiting Quality Teachers in Mathematics, Science, and Special Education for Urban and Rural Schools
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  Six strategies for recruiting highly qualified teachers in mathematics, science, and special education.

• Teacher Quality and Student Achievement: Making the Most of Recent Research
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality PDF
  A brief identifying several teacher quality variables that are strong and consistent predictors of student achievement.

• Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Range Plans. Issue No. 3 PDF
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  Research-based descriptions of the strengths and possible deficits of new teacher training, focusing especially on the lack of preparedness for the diversity of the contemporary American classroom and for teaching students with special needs.

• Lessons Learned: New Teachers Talk About Their Jobs, Challenges and Long-Range Plans. Issue No. 2—Working Without a Net: How Teachers From Three Prominent Alternative Route Programs Describe Their First Year PDF
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  A comparison of perspectives of new teachers in high-needs schools, examining those from traditional teacher education versus those from three alternate-route programs: Teach for America, Troops to Teachers, and The New Teacher Project.

• The Teacher Preparation—Teacher Practices—Student Outcomes Relationship in Special Education: Missing Links and New Connections PDF
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  An examination of the relationship between pre-service teacher preparation, teacher in-service practice, and outcomes for students with special needs.

• Key Issue: Identifying Professional Contexts to Support Highly Effective Teachers PDF
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  Strategies, resources, and case studies around identifying professional contexts to support highly effective teachers.

• Enhancing Teacher Leadership PDF
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  Strategies, resources, and case studies around enhancing teacher leadership.

• Improving the Preparation of School and District Leaders PDF
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  Strategies, resources, and case studies around better preparing school and district leaders.

• Teacher Quality in At-Risk Schools
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  An examination of 10 key issues often associated with getting and keeping quality teachers in the schools that most need them.

• The Value of Reliable Data PDF
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  A brief outlining how to use the Interactive Data Tools from the Teacher Quality Center, which enable users to extract valuable customized information on teacher preparation.

• Communication Framework for Measuring Teacher Quality and Effectiveness: Bringing Coherence to the Conversation
  National Comprehensive Center for Teacher Quality
  A communication framework developed to promote effective dialogue about the measurement of teacher quality and effectiveness.

• Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents: A Guidance Document from the Center on Instruction. PDF
  Center on Instruction
  Guidance which provides recommendations for improving literacy-related instruction in the content areas or across the entire school day, interventions for students reading below grade level, and recommendations for supporting literacy development in adolescent English Language Learners.

• Effective Instruction for Adolescent Struggling Readers: Professional Development Module
  PowerPoint Presentation for Facilitators MS Powerpoint
  Facilitator's Guide PDF
  Center on Instruction
  Module that enhances the understanding of selected research-based instructional practices associated with positive effects for adolescent struggling readers.

• Principal's Reading Walk-through K-3
  Facilitator's Guide PDF
  Participant's Guide PDF
  PowerPoint Presentation Module for Facilitators(1) PDF
  PowerPoint Presentation Module for Facilitators(2) PDF
  PowerPoint Presentation for Principal's Orientation with Speaker Notes MS Powerpoint
  Center on Instruction
  A user-friendly tool for classroom walk-through implementation that can identify research-based reading instruction in the classroom quickly and accurately.

• Leading for Reading: An Introductory Guide for K-3 Reading Coaches
  Facilitator's Guide (each chapter downloads separately from this link)
  Participant's Guide (each chapter downloads separately from this link)
  PowerPoint Presentation Module for Facilitators (each chapter downloads separately from this link)
  Center on Instruction
  A suite of resource materials designed to prepare school-based reading coaches who work with teachers to improve reading instruction in kindergarten through grade three.

Turning Around Low-Performing Schools

• Doing What Works: Turning Around the Lowest-Performing Schools
  U.S. Department of Education
  A media-rich website to help educators implement research-based practices around improving the work of chronically low-performing schools; includes multimedia descriptions of the research, best practice examples of school sites, and self-assessment tools to help improve practice.

• Turning Around Chronically Low-Performing Schools PDF
  U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
  Practices that can improve the performance of chronically low-performing schools to help them make adequate yearly progress.

• Assisting Students Struggling with Reading: Response to Intervention (RtI) and Multi-Tier Intervention in the Primary Grades PDF
  U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
  Recommendations to help educators identify struggling readers and implement RtI and multi-tier intervention methods to promote their reading achievement.

• Assisting Students Struggling with Mathematics: Response to Intervention (RtI) for Elementary and Middle Schools PDF
  U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
  Recommendations designed to help teachers, principals, and administrators use RtI for the early detection, prevention, and support of students struggling with mathematics.

• Improving Adolescent Literacy: Effective Classroom and Intervention Practices PDF
  U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences
  Evidence-based recommendations that educators can use to improve literacy levels among adolescents in upper elementary, middle, and high schools.

• School Turnarounds: A Review of the Cross-Sector Evidence on Dramatic Organizational Improvement
  Center on Innovation and Improvement
  A synthesis of literature from the education and public, nonprofit and private sectors related to successful school turnarounds.

• School Turnarounds: Actions and Results
  Center on Innovation and Improvement
  Descriptions of 14 leader actions associated with successful turnarounds and vignettes to illustrate each.

• Support for School Improvement
  Center on Innovation and Improvement
  A web-based tool for planning and navigating improvement of low-performing schools, currently being used in nine states.

• Meeting the Needs of Significantly Struggling Learners in High School: A Look at Approaches to Tiered Intervention PDF
  National High School Center
  An in-depth look at the issues and support required to successfully institute Response to Intervention (RTI) at the secondary school level.

• Report on Key Practices and Policies of Consistently Higher Performing High Schools PDF
  National High School Center
  Suggestions developed specifically for state leaders as well as LEAs, principals and teachers, on how they may support successful high school initiatives that are linked with accelerated learning.

• Emerging Evidence on Improving High School Student Achievement and Graduation Rates: The Effects of Four Popular Improvement Programs PDF
  National High School Center
  Lessons learned and key practices used to strengthen low-performing high schools; based evaluations of four widely used high school improvement programs: Career Academies; First Things First; Project GRAD; and Talent Development.

• Findings from the Early College High School Initiative: A Look at Best Practices and Lessons Learned Regarding a Dual Enrollment Program PDF
  National High School Center
  Lessons learned and best practices from an evaluation of the Early College High School Initiative, a dual enrollment program developed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

• Sustaining Focus on Secondary School Reading: Lessons and Recommendations from the Alabama Reading Initiative PDF
  National High School Center
  Student and teacher outcomes, lessons learned, and other findings from a recent evaluation of the Alabama Reading Initiative, which focuses on high school students and supports literacy coaches.

• Easing the Transition to High School: Research and Best Practices Designed to Support High School Learning PDF
  National High School Center
  Resources around effective transitions into high school.

• Preparing High School Students for Successful Transitions to Postsecondary Education and Employment PDF
  National High School Center
  Lessons from selected policies and programs designed to improve students' preparation for postsecondary pathways, including considerations for students with disabilities.

• Eight Elements of High School Improvement: A Mapping Framework PDF
  National High School Center
  A research-informed framework of eight core elements and key high school practices to use for mapping and guiding school, district, and state improvement efforts, ensuring an aligned, systemic approach to high school improvement.

• State-Level High School Improvement Systems Checklist PDF
  National High School Center
  A checklist to help states at various stages develop their systems of support to reach struggling high schools, including to assess where a state stands in using existing support and guidance mechanisms, and reconfiguring and/or creating new structures to leverage system change for high school improvement.

• Extensive Reading Interventions in Grades K-3: From Research to Practice PDF
  Center on Instruction
  A report which summarizes high quality research studies and synthesizes their findings on the effects of extensive reading interventions and related implications for practice for students with reading problems or learning disabilities in an RTI setting.

• Mathematics Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities or Difficulty Learning Mathematics: A Guide for Teachers PDF
  Center on Instruction
  This guide for teachers is a companion piece to the meta-analysis from the Center on Instruction, Mathematics Instruction for Students with Learning Disabilities or Difficulty Learning Mathematics: A Synthesis of the Intervention Research. Based on the findings of this report, seven effective instructional practices were identified for teaching mathematics to K-12 students with learning disabilities. It describes these practices and, incorporating recommendations from The Final Report of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel as well, specifies research-based recommendations for students with learning disabilities and for students who are experiencing difficulties in learning mathematics but are not identified as having a math learning disability.

• Teaching All Students to Read in Elementary School: A Guide for Principals PDF
  Center on Instruction
  Guidance to principals based on scientific research in reading and reading instruction on the elements of an effective reading program in elementary school, critical tasks for principals as literacy leaders and special considerations for reading after third grade.