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Quality Instruction

"There is growing evidence that students are most motivated when teachers are strong on all three legs of the instructional tripod: content knowledge, pedagogic skills, and relationship skills...Teachers differ a great deal in their effectiveness. The evidence is clear that some teachers produce much larger achievement gains than others do and that differences in teacher effectiveness tend to persist from year to year in the absence of effective professional development." Toward Excellence with Equity, 2007, Ronald Ferguson

 
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AGI Projects on Quality Instruction

The "High School Value Added" project is a collaboration with the Massachusetts State Department of Education. Using data from the MCAS test for 8th and 10th graders, the AGI is identifying high schools in the state that produce the greatest learning gains in reading and English language arts from the end of 8th grade to the end of 10th grade. Harvard faculty and students working with the AGI will conduct case studies in a selected group of schools in order to understand what they did in order to produce the measured gains. Gains among students receiving special education services are a special focus.

AGI Conference Reports: In 2008, the AGI published its first research report based on the June 2008 Annual Research-to-Practice conference "GETTING IT DONE: Raising Achievement and Closing Gaps in Whole School Systems: Recent Advances in Research and Practice". The AGI is currently working on its second report based on the June 2009 conference "Why Teachers Improve (and How): High School Supervision and Professional Community Toward Excellence with Equity".

Video Presentations on Quality Instruction

Title Presenter(s) Date Realplayer format PowerPoint
Foundations for Success Jason Snipes June 2006 video powerpoint
Teacher Quality Matters! Tom Kane June 2006 video
Teacher Recruitment, Retention and Assignment Brian Jacob June 2006 video
Class-to-Class Instructional Quality Differences and How They Matter Ronald Ferguson June 2006 video powerpoint
The Critical Importance of Staying On Track: Findings from CCSR and MDRC Studies Janet Quint June 2006 video powerpoint
School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap Steven Rivkin June 2006 video
Talking About Race in Education Mica Pollock June 2006 video
Five Critical Challenges of High School Reform Janet Quint June 2006 video
Examining the Effectiveness of Scaling Up First Things First Ed Deci June 2006 video
What Works in What Context and How? Charles Payne June 2006 video
How English teachers lead students to code-switch linguistically. Rebecca Wheeler June 2007 video powerpoint
Accountability and School Improvement Richard Elmore June 2007 video powerpoint
Teacher Assignment in Low-income Schools Susan Moore Johnson June 2007 video powerpoint
Institutional and Everyday forms of Discrimination and Achievement Outcomes Amanda Lewis June 2007 video powerpoint
How do we get get educators to consider and engage in the topic of race and opportunity? Mica Pollock June 2007 video
How Instruction and Peer Culture Affect Student Engagement in Several Domains: Evidence from the Tripod Project Ron Ferguson June 2007 video powerpoint
Longer Days in Better Schools: The Expanded Learning Model Christopher Gabrieli, Robin Harris, Carol Johnson, Jeffrey Riley December 2008 video
Beyond the Bubble: Helping ALL Students to Excel Richard Elmore, Tom Hehir, Michelle Burgos, Yvonne Allen April 2008 video
Problems in High Schools that Attempt to Improve Karin Chenoweth June 2009 video powerpoint
Project Based Learning: Manor New Technology High School, Manor, TX Steve Zipkes June 2009 video powerpoint
Project Based Learning: Naperville Central and North High Schools, Naperville, IL Jodi Wirt and Nina Menis June 2009 video powerpoint
High Poverty and Vocational Schools: Brighton High School, Boston, MA Joyce Campbell June 2009 video powerpoint
Building Capacity to Serve English Language Learners in U.S. Schools Jana Echevarria, Nonie K. Lesaux, Donna Dooley, Paul Reville April 2009 video
High Poverty and Vocational Schools: Worcester Technical High School, Worcester, MA Sheila Harrity June 2009 video powerpoint
High Poverty and Vocational Schools: Brockton High School, Brockton, MA Maria Lefort June 2009 video powerpoint
Project Based Learning: Robert A. Taft Information Technology High School, Cincinnati, OH Anthony Smith June 2009 video powerpoint
Why Improving High School Instruction is so Difficult Jon Saphier June 2009 video powerpoint
Profiles of Progress and Performance at the Conference?s Featured High Schools Ronald Ferguson June 2009 video powerpoint
English Language Arts: Randolph High School, Randolph, MA Bill Conard June 2009 video powerpoint
English Language Arts: Amherst Regional High School, Amherst, MA Kristen Iverson June 2009 video powerpoint
English Language Arts: Boston Latin Academy, Boston, MA Lydia Francis-Joyner and Miranda Lutyens June 2009 video powerpoint
Math: TechBoston High School, Boston, MA Mary Skipper June 2009 video powerpoint
Math: Lynn English High School, Lynn, MA Kathy Bonnevie June 2009 video powerpoint
Math: Naperville Central and North High Schools, Naperville, IL Jodi Wirt and Nina Menis June 2009 video powerpoint
Thurgood Marshall Academy Public Charter School, Washington, DC Alexandra Pardo June 2009 video powerpoint
Paint Branch High School, Montgomery County, MD John Haas June 2009 video powerpoint
Lee High School, Houston, TX Steve Amstutz June 2009 video powerpoint
Wrapup: Marian Brooks, Karin Chenoweth, Jim Connell, Richard Murnane Marian Brooks, Karin Chenoweth, Jim Connell, Richard Murnane June 2009 video

Papers on Quality Instruction

Title Abstract Author(s) Date Paper
A Problem-Solving Approach to Designing and Implementing a Strategy to Improve Performance
Stacey Childress, Geoff Marietta June 12, 2008 paper
A Program to Close the Fourth Grade Literacy Black-White Achievement Gap
Charlene B. Smith 2006 paper
Black Americans reduce the racial IQ gap: Evidence from standardization samples
William T. Dickens, James R. Flynn 2006 paper
Code-switching: Insights and Strategies for Teaching Standard English in Dialectally Diverse Classrooms
Rebecca S. Wheeler 2000-2007 paper
Cultivating New Routines
Ronald F. Ferguson 2003 paper
Dynamic Inequality I: Using NELS88 To Analyze Schooling Outcomes Over Time
W. Norton Grubb May 2006 paper
Foundations for Success: Case Studies of How Urban School Systems Improve Student Achievement
Jason Snipes, Fred Doolittle, Corinne Herlihy September 2002 paper
High Poverty Schools and the Distribution of Teachers and Principals
Charles Clotfelter, Helen Ladd, Jacob Vigdor, and Justin Wheeler December, 2007. Forthcoming in NC Law Review paper
Missing the Inner Intent: The Predictable Failures of Implementation
Charles Payne August 2005 paper
MULTIPLE RESOURCES, MULTIPLE OUTCOMES: TESTING THE “IMPROVED” SCHOOL FINANCE WITH NELS88
W. Norton Grubb June 2006 paper
Note on the PELP Coherence Framework
Stacey Childress, Richard Elmore, Allen S. Grossman, Caroline King January 31, 2007 paper
Pathways to a Four-Year Degree: Determinants of Transfer and Degree Completion
Alberto F. Cabrera, Kurt R. Burkum, Steven M. La Nasa 2005 paper
School Quality and the Black-White Achievement Gap
Eric A. Hanushek, Steven G. Rivkin June 2006 paper
Teaching Inequality: How Poor and Minority Students are Shortchanged by Teacher Quality
Heather G. Peske, Kati Haycock June 2006 paper
The Academic Achievement Gap in Grades 3 to 8
Charles T. Clotfelter, Helen F. Ladd, Jacob L. Vigdor April 2006 paper
The Role of Family Socioeconomic Resources in the Black-White Test Score Gap Among Young Children
Katherine Magnuson, Greg J. Duncan 2006 paper
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