Recent Publications by Eva Travers
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Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia – Executive Summary
This is the executive summary of RFA’s report, Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia. Under No Child Left Behind, urban school districts have increasingly turned to interim assessments, administered at regular…
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Philadelphia’s First Year Middle Grades Teachers: Perspectives on Supports and Experiences — Executive Summary
The School District of Philadelphia implemented several ambitious new initiatives in 2003-04 aimed at inducting and retaining new teachers. These efforts supplemented the existing in-school mentoring program and included the assignment of a New Teacher…
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Frequently-Asked Questions About Standardized Testing
A list of frequently asked questions about standardized testing, and their answers.
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Once & For All: Placing a Highly Qualified Teacher in Every Philadelphia Classroom
This report examines the current status of teacher quality in the city and what the School District of Philadelphia is now doing to ensure that all classrooms have highly trained, motivated, and knowledgeable teachers ready…
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Philadelphia School Reform: Historical Roots and Reflections on the 2002-2003 School Year under State Takeover
A review of the context and recent history of the state takeover of the School District of Philadelphia, with some tentative conclusions about the first year under the diverse providers model.
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The State Takeover in Philadelphia: Where We Are and How We Got Here
A fact sheet describing the roots of the state takeover of Philadelphia’s public schools, recent developments of the takeover, and results from the first year of the takeover.
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Understanding Philadelphia’s Tests
As part of the public awareness initiative of the project Learning from Philadelphia’s School Reform, the authors prepared this center spread article (also included in Spanish translation), which compares the two standardized tests currently in…
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Philadelphia’s First Year Middle Grades Teachers: Perspectives on Supports and Experiences, 2003-2004
The School District of Philadelphia implemented several ambitious new initiatives in 2003-04 aimed at inducting and retaining new teachers. These efforts supplemented the existing in-school mentoring program and included the assignment of a New Teacher…
Publication
Achieving ‘Proficiency’: The Devil Is in the Details of State Plans
This article discusses the No Child Left Behind legislation and inconsistencies resulting from each state being resposible for finding ways to measure and meet meet achievement requirements. It considers variations in state tests, subjective performance…
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Studying Micro-Processes of School-Based Educators’ Use of Data in Cross-School Qualitative Research
This paper was presented at the American Education Research Association’s 2007 annual conference. While there is a great deal of enthusiasm for collection and use of student data by educators, little is known about how…
Publication
Making the Most of Interim Assessment Data: Lessons from Philadelphia
Under No Child Left Behind, urban school districts have increasingly turned to interim assessments, administered at regular intervals, to help gauge student progress in advance of annual state exams. These assessments have spawned growing debate…