Since 1995, Education Matters has been focused primarily on studying the implementation of standards-based reform in urban districts. Some of this work has been focused on middle school reform in San Diego, Louisville, Long Beach, and Corpus Christi and implemented with funding from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation. [View reports in PDF format]

In 1997, Education Matters began a multi-year evaluation of Boston's approach to whole-school improvement in the context of standards. This ongoing work focused, primarily, on a sample of elementary and middle schools and has been funded with grants from OERI and the Boston Annenberg Challenge. [View reports in PDF format] Education Matters' work in Boston will extend to a study of the district's high school reform beginning September 2003.

In collaboration with the Center for the Study of Teaching and Policy (CTP) at the University of Washington, Education Matters is conducting comparative case studies of eight districts to examine how districts use professional development to improve teaching and learning. This research, funded by OERI, explores the rationale behind districts' investment in professional learning. [Final reports from this study will be available by June 30, 2003 at www.ctpweb.org.]

In 2000, Education Matters completed a two-year research study funded by OERI on the role of teacher leaders in scaling up standards-based reform. The study created ten in-depth case studies of recognized teacher leaders that were designed to identify the knowledge, skills, and dispositions that enable teachers to use standards to improve teaching and learning. [View report in PDF format]

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