School learning starts with school attendance. Students need to be in school to receive instruction and learn from their teachers and peers. When schools have high rates of poor attendance, their academic achievement levels suffer. Ninth grade is a critical juncture that comes with increased student autonomy -- and new pitfalls, including the…

The purpose of this study was to explore 188 third through eighth-grade students' patterns of social interaction related to a comprehensive school-based health program, and to investigate relationships between student social capital (i.e., number and frequency of interactions with friends, teachers, and guardians/family members) and teacher…

This study sought to determine if there is a relationship between students' scores on the eighth-grade Indiana State Test of Education Progress Plus (ISTEP+) exam and success on Indiana's Algebra End-of-Course Assessment (ECA). Additionally, it sought to determine if algebra success could be significantly predicted by the achievement in one or…

Accurately measuring and modeling academic achievement growth is critical to support educational policy and practice. Using a nationally representative longitudinal data set, this study compared various models of mathematics achievement growth on the basis of both practical utility and optimal statistical fit and explored relationships within and…

Effective instruction is a critical predictor of student achievement. As students with exceptionalities such as emotional and behavioral disorders and learning disabilities, who typically struggle with academic achievement, spend increasing amounts of general education settings, the need for precise instructional behaviors becomes more imperative.…

Japanese compulsory education had been praised because of its equality around the early 80s. However, since the third wave-educational reform that began in the 1980s and still persists, it has been pointed out that there are disparities between schools in terms of students' socioeconomic background and academic performance. Although there have…

This study of 1,601 students in the middle years of schooling (Grades 5-8, each student measured twice, 1 year apart) from 200 classrooms in 44 schools sought to identify factors explaining gains and declines in mathematics engagement at key transition points. In multilevel regression modeling, findings showed that compared with Grade 6 students…

Project Lead the Way (PLTW) is a hands-on, project-based engineering curriculum for high school and middle school students, which has quadrupled annual enrollment in Texas in five years to over 23,000 students. The diversity of students participating has also increased dramatically. Using six years of longitudinally-linked student data, the…

In this follow-up to "Do High Flyers Maintain Their Altitude? Performance Trends of Top Students," the academic growth of 35,000 elementary and middle school students in 31 states, all of them high achievers within their own schools, were followed over a three-year period. Their achievement scores were matched with their associated…

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of the number of transitions by students from school to school on their mathematics achievement. Transition is defined as the number of times a student has changed schools from Kindergarten to the current school year. This study also looked at the relationship between the students' perceived…