McRel Rural E-News, November 2006

1. Students� academic success can be a matter of principal Sydney Morning Herald
Student performance can soar under the influence of a good teacher, but school principals are just as important in getting results, an Australian study has concluded. The research into 38 high schools in New South Wales shows principals have a key responsibility in raising educational standards. Those who played an active role as educational leaders, who were not simply bogged down in management and administration tasks, made all the difference.

2. Study says better pre-kindergarten needed Richmond (Va.) Times Dispatch
High-quality pre-kindergarten programs can close the gap for at-risk kids, says a University of Virginia researcher. His research, however, found few state programs of the caliber necessary to do the job. For the study, researcher Robert Pianta observed thousands of pre-kindergarten and elementary school students in multiple states and found that at-risk students who had the benefit of quality pre-kindergarten programs caught up to peers who started school without similar challenges.

3. McREL�s Designing Effective Science Lessons (DESL) Professional Development Series
McREL�s Designing Effective Science Lessons (DESL) is a four-part staff development program that provides teachers with practical, research-based strategies to improve the quality of their science lessons. In 2007, McREL will offer this program, developed and presented by Anne Tweed, former president of the National Science Teachers Association, during a series of sessions at our offices in Denver:

4. PEAK Afterschool Workshop Series
McREL and the National Partnership for Quality Afterschool Learning are convening the third annual PEAK (Practices that Engage and Attract Kids) Afterschool Event. In 2007, this event will be held as a series of three, two-day workshops in Kansas City, MO (Feb. 22-23, 2007), Wheeling, IL (March 8-9, 2007), and St. Paul, MN (May 3-4, 2007). All three workshops will offer new ideas for academic enrichment in afterschool programs and provide in-depth professional development covering six academic areas: math & science, arts & literacy, and homework & technology. Space is limited, so register today!

5. McREL Summer Institutes
In June 2007, McREL will provide a series of intensive, weeklong Summer Institutes that will provide educators with practical, research-based strategies for raising student achievement. The institutes focus on three of the 11 elements of schooling that McREL research, as reported in What Works in Schools, demonstrates can have a positive effect on student achievement:

6. NEA Foundation Learning & Leadership Grants
The NEA Foundation provides grants to support individual or groups of public school teachers, public education support professionals, and/or faculty and staff in public institutions of higher education to participate in high-quality professional development experiences, such as summer institutes or action research. Grants to groups may fund collegial study, including study groups, action research, lesson study, or mentoring experiences for faculty or staff new to an assignment. The grant amount is $2,000 for individuals and $5,000 for groups engaged in collegial study. Deadline: February 1, 2007

NEW FROM McREL

7. The Balanced Leadership Framework�: Connecting Vision with Action
McREL�s new handbook helps leaders translate our research on highly effective leaders into action in their schools. It condenses the 21 responsibilities of effective leaders identified in the McREL/ASCD publication, School Leadership that Works, into three action-oriented components:

Establishing a focus,
Creating a purposeful community,
Managing change

The Framework also describes the concept of �balanced leadership.� According to authors Tim Waters and Greg Cameron, �balancing when and how to maintain the status quo with when and how to challenge it is often the difference between effective and ineffective leadership.�

REPORT ROUNDUP

8. Funding Gaps 2006 Education Trust
This new report concludes that school finance policy at the federal, state, and district levels systematically stack the deck against students who need the most support from their schools. In particular, the Title I allocation formula, which provides federal dollars to schools based on how much states spend on education, reinforces rather than reduces funding gaps between wealthy and poor states. For example, Maryland has fewer poor children than Arkansas but receives 51 percent more Title I aid per poor child, even though Arkansas dedicates more of its taxable resources to education.

9. Charter High Schools: Closing the Achievement Gap U.S. Department of Education, Office of Innovation and Improvement
This guide profiles eight charter secondary schools that are making headway in meeting the achieve�ment challenge. Schools profiled include Gateway High (School San Francisco, Calif.); Media and Technology Charter High School (MATCH) (Boston, Mass.); Minnesota New Country School (Henderson, Minn.); North Star Academy Charter School of Newark (N.J.); The Preuss School (La Jolla, Calif.); The SEED Public Charter School of Washington, D.C.; Toledo School For The Arts (Toledo, Ohio); YES College Preparatory School, Southeast campus (Houston, Tex.).

10. Dropout Rates in the United States: 2004 National Center for Education Statistics
This report builds upon a series of NCES reports on high school dropout and completion rates that began in 1988. It presents estimates of rates for 2004 and provides data about trends in dropout and completion rates over the last three decades. A key finding from the report is that students living in low-income families were approximately four times more likely to drop out of high school between 2003 and 2004 than were their peers from high-income families.

McREL IN THE NEWS

11. Board approves McREL study of Senior High Grand Island (Neb.) Independent
The Grand Island school board has approved a study of Grand Island Senior High, which will look at school culture, educational leadership, student learning experiences, organizational structure and the school improvement process for GISH. Superintendent Steve Joel said he thinks the McREL study can get the district out of its rut when it comes to its thinking on school improvement.

12. Influence: A Study of the Factors Shaping Education Policy Editorial Projects Education Research Center
McREL, two of its research studies, and one staff member were nominated for inclusion in a new report that identifies the most influential people, organizations, research reports, and information sources in education policy over the past decade. Two McREL research reports, School Leadership that Works and Classroom Instruction that Works, were nominated for inclusion in the report, which was conducted by a research group associated with the national newspaper Education Week. McREL Senior Fellow Bob Marzano was also nominated as an influential person.