Impact: Connecticut

Regional Impact

Connecticut

Fast Response Projects

Fast Response Projects are short-term projects that respond to regional and national needs and priorities and provide research-based knowledge to inform policy and practice. They use methods such as research syntheses, mining of existing data sets, and descriptive studies. Completed projects are published as Issues & Answers Reports by the Institute of Education Sciences.

	Piloting a Searchable Database of Dropout Prevention Programs in Nine Low-Income Urban School Districts in the Northeast and Islands Region Despite evidence that some dropout prevention programs have positive effects, whether districts in the region are using such evidence-based programs has not been documented. This report details a pilot project to generate and share knowledge by building a searchable database of dropout programs and policies implemented in nine midsize urban school districts.
	How State Education Agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region Support Data-Driven Decision-Making in Districts and Schools The report examines the initiatives of state education agencies (SEAs) in the Northeast and Islands Region to support data-driven decision-making in districts and schools and describes the service providers hired to support this work. The report identifies four components of data-driven decision-making initiatives and finds that not all initiatives include all four.
	Parent Involvement Strategies in Urban Middle and High Schools in the Northeast and Islands Region Increasing parent involvement has been identified as a priority in multiple Northeast and Islands Region jurisdictions and is consistent with requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Title I. Informed by a review of the literature on parent involvement strategies and working with nine urban districts in the region, this project developed and field-tested a protocol for documenting what parent involvement policies, programs, and practices are being implemented by states, districts, and schools at the secondary level, and how these efforts are evaluated.
	How Eight State Education Agencies in the Northeast and Islands Region Identify and Support Low-Performing Schools and Districts This report describes and analyzes how eight state education agencies (SEAs) in the Northeast and Islands Region—those of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, and Vermont—identify and support low-performing schools and districts under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).
	Compendium of Strategies to Reduce Teacher Turnover in the Northeast and Islands Region This project developed a database of policies and programs implemented to reduce teacher-turnover rates. The database includes descriptive profiles of 33 policies and programs utilized in four New England states and can be searched by several variables, including district size, per-participant cost, target grade level, and program type. Interventions were identified through a variety of publicly available sources, and detailed information was gathered through interviews with appropriate individuals.
	Key Features of State Response to Intervention (RTI) Initiatives in the Northeast and Islands The report analyzes the RTI-related initiatives, policies, regulations, and structures for support in all nine REL-NEI jurisdictions. It finds that the six New England states and New York support RTI as an overall school instructional-improvement approach or an approach to determining special-education eligibility. It also finds that RTI documents in the seven jurisdictions address the eight core features of RTI as defined by the National Research Center on Learning Disabilities.
	Understanding the Reporting Behavior of School Bullying Victims Bullying in school is a form of aggressive conduct in which one or more students intentionally and repeatedly harasses, intimidates, or physically harms another student. Unfortunately many bullying events are not reported to school authorities. Learning more about the conditions in which bullying is reported or not would be instructive to concerned officials. This project will use national crime data to analyze the reporting of bullying events involving students in grades 6–12 (ages 12–18). This project is in progress.
	Teacher Preparation: Special Education Requirements for General Education Teachers More than 6 million students with disabilities are served under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004. Two-thirds of these students are in at least one course taught by general education teachers. Due to the increased inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms, it is essential for general education teachers to have the knowledge and skills needed to teach students with disabilities. This project will produce a report of the current certification requirements for general education teachers to teach students with disabilities in the Northeast and Islands Region. This project is in progress.
	An Examination of Four State-Led Formative Assessment Initiatives in the Northeast and Islands Region Formative assessment has become a topic of great interest to education policymakers and practitioners within the Northeast and Islands Region and nationwide. In response to a request from the REL-NEI Governing Board, this project will describe and compare four separate formative-assessment initiatives in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Vermont. Each of these initiatives has been state-led and administered in schools within one or more districts for over a year. This project is in progress.