About Us
The National Center for Educational Achievement (NCEA) is a non-profit, non-partisan organization and the national sponsor of Just for the Kids (JFTK). Our goal is to support efforts to reach excellence in education - to raise academic expectations and to promote the practices that will help more students reach college/career readiness.
We have been working over the last decade to build a continuous cycle for improvement based on an honest and diligent focus on student performance (Inform), the careful examination of effective practices of proven high-performers (Inspire), and using what is learned to support targeted improvement planning and implementation (Improve).
Major NCEA strategies and initiatives in support of our goal include:
Inform
- Promoting the improvement of state data collection and the creation of statewide longitudinal student information systems to improve decision making through the Data Quality Campaign (DQC);
- Using data to create Just for the Kids Web sites that focus public school communities on the improvement potential of every school;
- Conducting research using longitudinal student data to strengthen the knowledge base of what works to raise student achievement;
Inspire
- Identifying consistently high-performing schools and school systems;
- Identifying and promoting the best practices that distinguish consistently high-performing schools from other schools;
Improve
- Developing resources and implementing JFTK school and district services that help educators and school communities get more students ready for college and careers.