Sponsored by the National Center on School Choice, a research consortium headed by Vanderbilt University, this volume examines the growth and outcomes of the charter school movement. Starting in 1992-93 when the nations first charter school was opened in Minneapolis, the movement has now spread to 40 states and the District of Columbia and by 2005-06 enrolled 1,040,536 students in 3,613 charter schools. The purpose of this volume is to help monitor this fast-growing movement by compiling, organizing and making available some of the most rigorous and policy-relevant research on K-12 charter schools. Key features of this important new book include:

Expertise The National Center on School Choice includes internationally known scholars from the following institutions: Harvard University, Brown University, Stanford University, Brookings Institution, National Bureau of Economic Research and Northwest Evaluation Association.

Cross-Disciplinary Thevolume brings together material from related disciplines and methodologies that are associated with the individual and systemic effects of charter schools.

Coherent Structure Each section begins with a lengthy introduction that summarizes the themes and major findings of that section. A summarizing chapter by Mark Schneider, the Commissioner of the National Center on Educational Statistics, concludes the book.

This volume is appropriate researchers, instructors and graduate students in educationpolicy programs and in political science and economics, as well as in-service administrators, policy makers, and providers.

Sponsored by the National Center on School Choice, a research consortium headed by Vanderbilt University, this volume examines the growth and outcomes of the charter school movement. Starting in 1992-93 when the nations first charter school was opened in Minneapolis, the movement has now spread to 40 states and the District of Columbia and by 2005-06 enrolled 1,040,536 students in 3,613 charter schools. The purpose of this volume is to help monitor this fast-growing movement by compiling, organizing and making available some of the most rigorous and policy-relevant research on K-12 charter schools. Key features of this important new book include:

Expertise The National Center on School Choice includes internationally known scholars from the following institutions: Harvard University, Brown University, Stanford University, Brookings Institution, National Bureau of Economic Research and Northwest Evaluation Association.

Cross-Disciplinary Thevolume brings together material from related disciplines and methodologies that are associated with the individual and systemic effects of charter schools.

Coherent Structure Each section begins with a lengthy introduction that summarizes the themes and major findings of that section. A summarizing chapter by Mark Schneider, the Commissioner of the National Center on Educational Statistics, concludes the book.

This volume is appropriate researchers, instructors and graduate students in educationpolicy programs and in political science and economics, as well as in-service administrators, policy makers, and providers.

This book addresses one of the most urgent questions in American society today, one that is currently in the spotlight and hotly debated on all sides: Who shall rule the schools--parents or educators?
"School Choice or Best Systems: What Improves Education?" presents an overview of research and practical applications of innovative--even radical--school reforms being implemented across the United States. These fall along a continuum ranging from parental choice to best systems. At the one extreme are schools of choice, which allow parents to choose and even govern schools for their children. These include charter schools, traditional private and parochial schools, schools that are privately governed but publicly funded through vouchers, and those that are funded by private scholarships provided by both corporations and wealthy individuals. At the other extreme are centralized state or district systems, based on reform initiatives and new systems of education that have been developed in response to views of citizens and legislators that schools can do much better. These schools, which specify uniform goals, policies, and programs for each school, are highly innovative systems based on research or representing advanced thinking about what works, and have attracted wide interest.
Important questions related to schools of choice and best systems are addressed: How can we choose among schools of choice and best systems? Among the various approaches within each of these alternatives? How can we understand their guiding principles and operational practices? What results do they produce? How can we evaluate their claims? In choosing among the alternatives, how should issues of student achievement, accountability, costs, feasibility, and equity be factored in?
This volume brings together leading researchers and education leaders who have carried out the latest studies and advances in the field, providing a forum for them to set forth the arguments and evidence that will be most helpful in making choices for tomorrow's schools. It does not provide a single right answer--values and preferences differ across parents, schools, districts, and states. However, there are benefits for all from seeing the rigorous research, challenging thinking, and alternate points of view this volume presents.

This book is concerned with the sweeping changes that took place in public assistance programs at the end of the 20th century and the way in which the original and reformed versions of these programs relate to the well-being of children and their families. It is a valuable reference for practitioners and policymakers who are concerned with children and child-related issues, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, social program administrators, and students in psychology, social work, sociology, political science, and education.

Despite often simplistic, black-and-white portrayals of good and evil, children and adolescents face complicated moral issues that can raise more questions than answers. Becoming aware of what constitutes morality is only the first step in determining a course of action, identifying and avoiding problems, and building communities that nurture morality. Young people learn to define and respond to moral dilemmas by interacting with and observing numerous sources. They acquire knowledge from family members, teachers, church leaders, peers, and members of neighborhood organizations. Raising themes of cultural pluralism, responsibility, complexity, affectivity, and practicality, Nurturing Morality addresses such issues as: - Definitions of morality that link past and current debates, enabling a more thorough understanding of moral functioning. - Personal responsibilities and impediments to moral functioning. - How societal structures can facilitate or inhibit moral agency and development. - The importance of acknowledging the common good as well as individual accomplishments. - Nurturing morality through wisdom. Drawing from a wide range of independent research programs, Nurturing Morality makes clear that most forms of human interaction are laden with moral content. It highlights thorny and complex moral questions that cannot be resolved by simple adherence to moral rules. And on the basis of empirically grounded findings, contributors to this volume provide recommendations for how adults can offer valuable guidance to young people learning to negotiate life in a global society. For clinicians, researchers, and students, Nurturing Morality provides much-needed insight and advice on young people's moral development.

This book provides information needed to prevent five of the most common, costly, and dangerous problems of adolescence: anti-social behavior, tobacco use, alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual behavior that risks disease and unwanted pregnancy. It is an important resource for psychologists, sociologists, social workers, and educators, as well as for upper-level students in these areas.

This book provides effective strategies that can be used to improve academic achievement and well-being of minority students. It examines, collectively, three cultural groups on themes related to diverse families, immigration issues, and teaching and learning. The book conceptualizes opportunities and challenges in working with minority children in the context of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It is a must-have reference for anyone who works with children.

This book provides effective strategies that can be used to improve academic achievement and well-being of minority students. It examines, collectively, three cultural groups on themes related to diverse families, immigration issues, and teaching and learning. The book conceptualizes opportunities and challenges in working with minority children in the context of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It is a must-have reference for anyone who works with children.

This book is concerned with the sweeping changes that took place in public assistance programs at the end of the 20th century and the way in which the original and reformed versions of these programs relate to the well-being of children and their families. It is a valuable reference for practitioners and policymakers who are concerned with children and child-related issues, psychologists, sociologists, social workers, social program administrators, and students in psychology, social work, sociology, political science, and education.

Preventing Youth Problems provides information needed to prevent five of the most common, costly, and dangerous problems of adolescence: anti-social behavior, tobacco use, alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual behavior that risks disease and unwanted pregnancy. Over the past thirty years, scientific research on children and adolescents identified the major conditions influencing each of these problems.
Each of the chapters in this volume provides a concise summary of what is known about one of these five problem behaviors. Each chapter covers the following essential points:

- Incidence, prevalence, and cost of the problem, vital for gauging the importance of preventing the problem and for making the case for such efforts in public discussion of priorities;
- Biological and environmental influences which increase or decrease the likelihood of these problems; and,
- Principles, programs and policies that have been shown to reduce the incidence of each problem, information that can help in prevention of these behaviors.

Hardbound. This volume is the seventh in an annual series of works on educational productivity centered on how more can be accomplished in education without consuming additional human, economic, and social resources. In Evaluation Research for Educational Productivity a key question addressed by the authors is: How do current developments in evaluation research enhance our capacity to come to conclusions useful to policy makers and program professionals? Reynolds and Walberg have brought together exemplary contributions from leading scholars who describe their evaluation approaches in education and reflect on their research methods and lessons learned from what went right and wrong in real world efforts. This volume will be most useful to program administrators and policy makers.

The contributors to this volume include scholars and financial analysts. Their data, means of analysis and policy insights should be a useful source for future research and educational improvements. Going beyond mere juxtaposition, the editors show how chief ideas represented in the chapters relate to one another and have developed over the last few decades.

The Handbook of Special and Remedial Education: Research and Practice is an update of the four-volume Handbook series, which provided a comprehensive summary of the well-confirmed knowledge in the field of special education available through the mid-1980's. The need for an updated second edition grew out of the extensive activity in research, policy developments, and related changes in practices over the past decade. The new single volume gives first priority to a review of the knowledge base, as derived from recent research and practices in schools and related agencies. It notes discrepancies between the state of the art and the state of practice. These disparities are further linked to brief discussions of policy issues and needed research, revisions in training programs, and organizational arrangements in the field.

This edition is segmented into three major sections. The six chapters within "Learning Rates: Issues of Concern and Prospects for Improvement" range from a discussion of early education for disabled children and those at risk, to educational resilience. The six chapters under "Distinct Disabilities" cover such topics as visual, hearing, and language impairments. Finally, the four chapters in "Associated Conditions and Resources" discuss funding, parents and advocacy systems, staff preparation, and emerging school/community linkages.

This fourth volume of the Handbook of Special Education: Research and Practice deals with the nature and nurture of gifted and talented youth, issues affecting students with severe disabilities and children and youth at risk. Section one focuses on gifted and talented youth, their identification, practices to accelerate and enrich their learning, their socio-emotional adjustment, and special categories of gifted students. New federal legislation in the US, changing views about intelligence, and growing concern over quality of education, make this section timely and important. Section two concerns students with severe disabilities with topics ranging from how they can be served in regular school and community settings to the transition to work and living in the community. In section three the theme is children and youth at risk from poverty, limited linguistic competence, limited cognitive mastery, and family problems. The chapters highlight what action can be taken to solve the educational problems associated with these risks. Special attention is paid to the problems of education in the inner-city.

The pressing need to improve achievement in American schools is widely recognized. In Tests, Testing, and Genuine School Reform, Herbert J. Walberg draws on scientific studies of tests and their uses to inform citizens, educators, and policy makers about well-established principles of testing, current problems, and promising evidence-based solutions. He explains the central considerations in developing and evaluating good tests and tells how tests can best be used, covering such topics as using tests for student incentives, paying teachers for performance, and using tests in efforts to attain new state and national standards.To minimize mistaken policies and practices, the book also describes testing technology to enable readers to evaluate and make better use of tests. And because valid tests cannot be developed without clear, specific standards, one chapter is devoted to discussing standards and how they should determine the plans and development of tests and testing. In view of the continuing technical and political problems of tests and testing, the last chapter argues that, for accountability, to improve tests and testing, and to prevent fraud, the development, administration, scoring, and reporting test results should be conducted independent of traditional school authorities.

Although educators and school boards sometimes resist the idea, accountability is sorely needed in America's schools. Our students are falling behind those in other countries, yet compared to their foreign counterparts, our schools remain subject to little accountability. The U.S. school system lacks the marketplace accountability of schools competing with one another and the further accountability of large-scale examination systems, both of which are associated with high achievement. It is clear that after a quarter century of poor progress in educational productivity, the time has come for high academic standards and accountability.

Although educators and school boards sometimes resist the idea, accountability is sorely needed in America's schools. Our students are falling behind those in other countries, yet compared to their foreign counterparts, our schools remain subject to little accountability. The U.S. school system lacks the marketplace accountability of schools competing with one another and the further accountability of large-scale examination systems, both of which are associated with high achievement. It is clear that after a quarter century of poor progress in educational productivity, the time has come for high academic standards and accountability.

"Unless popular myths about capitalism are challenged, school reform will stall well short of success."
--From the introduction to Education and Capitalism
"This is a thoughtful, thorough examination of the virtues of capitalism and free markets as a way to organize elementary and secondary education in a democracy."
--Milton Friedman Senior research fellow, Hoover Institution Nobel Prize winner in economic sciences
For parents, teachers, policymakers, taxpayers, and scholars who want better schools for children regardless of their race, social background, or parents' income, this book asserts that, if schools were "privatized" (moved from the public to the private sector), they could once again do a superior job providing kindergarten to twelfth-grade (K-12) education.
Drawing on insights and findings from history, psychology, sociology, political science, and economics, the authors reveal
Why schools and past efforts at school reform have failedWhy capitalism can be trusted to produce safe and effective schools--and why economics is an appropriate tool for studying how schooling is deliveredWhat history tells us about the government's role in schooling--and why keeping most schooling in the hands of government does not help achieve equality and democracyHow guidelines for voucher programs that protect the poorest and most vulnerable members of society otherwise work as well as their proponents predictWhy conservatives and libertarians should support school voucher programs
The authors show that, unless popular myths about capitalism are challenged, school reform will stall well short of success. Without a broader understanding of how and why markets work, the small steps in the right direction taken at the end of the twentieth century risk being swept away at the start of the twenty-first.

A renowned educator-psychologist explains how children learn and how family, classroom, and school practices can help them learn more effectively. In addition to drawing on studies of learning outcomes, the author reveals economic research on teacher education and school choice that challenges many popular assumptions.

A renowned educator-psychologist explains how children learn and how family, classroom, and school practices can help them learn more effectively. In addition to drawing on studies of learning outcomes, Herbert Walberg reveals economic research on teacher education and school choice that challenges many popular assumptions. He debunks many of the myths of modern education and outlines the factors that psychologists have found consistently associated with high levels of classroom learning.Walberg reveals why teachers' classroom practices-not their credentials or experience-are what makes a true difference in student learning. He presents research, showing that young learners thrive when teachers have clear goals, plan effective activities to attain them, and measure student progress. The author also discusses the powerful influence of parents on what students learn within and outside school and how choice programs give parents a stronger role in their children's education.

Improving Schools to Promote Learning is a concise and common-sense examination of all the moving parts that drive student learning. The book ties together the research, policies, and practices relative to the state, district, school, classroom, and family, and explains their effects on student learning. The author covers an array of topics, including technology, charter schools, turnaround initiatives, and instruction in specific subject areas. Herbert J. Walberg's book continues the work of previous publications from the Center on Innovation & Improvement (Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement and Handbook on the Statewide Systems of Support) that connect research to practice at various levels of the education system. The book is accessible to a wide audience, including educators, school board members, parents, and policy makers. Walberg includes action steps in every chapter, providing practical recommendations for improved student achievement. The author also offers select references for additional material on the best research and most effective practices.

Improving Schools to Promote Learning is a concise and common-sense examination of all the moving parts that drive student learning. The book ties together the research, policies, and practices relative to the state, district, school, classroom, and family, and explains their effects on student learning. The author covers an array of topics, including technology, charter schools, turnaround initiatives, and instruction in specific subject areas. Herbert J. Walberg's book continues the work of previous publications from the Center on Innovation & Improvement (Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement and Handbook on the Statewide Systems of Support) that connect research to practice at various levels of the education system. The book is accessible to a wide audience, including educators, school board members, parents, and policy makers. Walberg includes action steps in every chapter, providing practical recommendations for improved student achievement. The author also offers select references for additional material on the best research and most effective practices.

As subsequent chapters point out, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires states to provide assistance to districts in improving the schools within their purview. Of course, the U.S. Constitution and federal laws leave the control of education largely to the states, and states have long provided support to school districts. In return for federal monies, however, NCLB requires states to provide such help under the statewide systems of support (SSOS) provision of the Act. The purposes of this Handbook are to survey the research related to statewide systems of support, to present the experience and insights of educational leaders in how such support can best be conducted, and to derive actionable principles for improving schools. It is intended for use not only by the staff of the U.S. Department of Education-sponsored Regional Centers that serve state department staff but also by the staff of school districts and schools. Also sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education, the Center on Innovation & Improvement (CII) previously developed the Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement (Walberg, 2007) that became the basis of CII's technical assistance to Regional Centers on this topic. CII made available for downloading Power Point presentations and web-based seminars (""webinars"") based on the previous Handbook. CII's intended audiences widely employed the previous Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement and auxiliary materials and found them useful in their technical assistance efforts to disseminate and encourage evidence-based ideas for restructuring and improving schools. With advice from the U.S. Department of Education, scholarly experts, and experienced educators in the Regional Centers, state departments of education, and school districts, the CII staff concluded that what it envisioned as the present Handbook would be similarly useful.

As subsequent chapters point out, the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires states to provide assistance to districts in improving the schools within their purview. Of course, the U.S. Constitution and federal laws leave the control of education largely to the states, and states have long provided support to school districts. In return for federal monies, however, NCLB requires states to provide such help under the statewide systems of support (SSOS) provision of the Act. The purposes of this Handbook are to survey the research related to statewide systems of support, to present the experience and insights of educational leaders in how such support can best be conducted, and to derive actionable principles for improving schools. It is intended for use not only by the staff of the U.S. Department of Education-sponsored Regional Centers that serve state department staff but also by the staff of school districts and schools. Also sponsored by the U.S.Department of Education, the Center on Innovation & Improvement (CII) previously developed the Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement (Walberg, 2007) that became the basis of CII's technical assistance to Regional Centers on this topic. CII made available for downloading Power Point presentations and web-based seminars (""webinars"") based on the previous Handbook. CII's intended audiences widely employed the previous Handbook on Restructuring and Substantial School Improvement and auxiliary materials and found them useful in their technical assistance efforts to disseminate and encourage evidence-based ideas for restructuring and improving schools. With advice from the U.S. Department of Education, scholarly experts, and experienced educators in the Regional Centers, state departments of education, and school districts, the CII staff concluded that what it envisioned as the present Handbook would be similarly useful.