National and international comparisons have found that the mathematics achievement levels of US students fall far behind those of other developed nations, and that within the US itself, the students who are falling behind come predominantly from high poverty and high minority areas. This paper reports on a series of analyses that followed 4 cohorts of students from 3 such schools through the middle grades, 4 th to 8 th grade, where studies have found the mathematics achievement gap to develop most rapidly. The cohorts followed in these analyses attended schools that were implementing whole-school reform models, that implemented research based and proven curriculums, subject specific teacher training and professional development, multiple layers of teacher and classroom support, as well as school climate reforms. The research found that students at these schools implementing the whole-school reform models made greater progress in closing the mathematics achievement gap than at the other 23 high poverty high minority schools in their district. The paper also finds that in all the schools, while a significant proportion of students were successfully closing the achievement gap, the majority of students were still falling further behind. Using the results from a Binary Logistic Regression model, the paper then shows which factors were key in enabling or constraining a students' ability to close the achievement gap during their middle school years. The paper concludes that various student, classroom, and school level factors are all key in helping students to close the gap and that whole-school reform models, while often time and cost intensive, address issues at all of these levels and may be more able to effect the achievement gap than other more simply implemented reforms that many school districts favor. It also concludes that while few detailed analytical studies that follow entire cohorts of students through their middle school years exist, more are needed for better understanding the factors that effect students' performance in the middle grades and what changes are needed for further improvement.

Collaborative practice is receiving increased attention as a model of healthcare delivery that positively influences the effectiveness and efficiency of patient care while improving the work environment of healthcare providers. The collaborative practice assessment tool (CPAT) was developed from the literature to enable interprofessional teams to assess their collaborative practice. The CPAT survey included 56 items across nine domains including: mission and goals; relationships; leadership; role responsibilities and autonomy; communication; decision-making and conflict management; community linkages and coordination; perceived effectiveness and patient involvement; in addition to three open-ended questions. The tool was developed for use in a variety of settings involving a diversity of healthcare providers with the aim of helping teams to identify professional development needs and corresponding educational interventions. The results of two pilot tests indicated that the CPAT is a valid and reliable tool for assessing levels of collaborative practice within teams. This article describes the development of the tool, the pilot testing and validation process, as well as limitations of the tool.

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