I study student characteristics and academic performance at the University of California, where consideration of an applicant's ethnicity has been banned since 1996 and SAT scores were used in admitting students to the university until fall 2021. I show the following: (1) SAT scores were more important than high school grades in predicting…

In this content analysis of state U.S. History and Civics standards, we compared the treatment of immigration across three types of states with differing immigration demographics. Analyzing standards from 18 states from a critical race methodology perspective, our findings indicated three sets of tensions: a unified American story versus local…

English language learners (ELLs) have typically performed worse academically when compared to their English-fluent peers. Studies point to a number of possible causes for ELLs' poor performance, and offer differing recommendations for how best to educate them. This study by the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute (TRPI) demonstrates the significant…

Improvements in motor sequence performance have been observed after a delay involving sleep. This finding has been taken as evidence for an active sleep consolidation process that enhances subsequent performance. In a review of this literature, however, the authors observed 4 aspects of data analyses and experimental design that could lead to…

This review of the literature investigates ways to apply student-centered math activities in fifth grade standards-based curriculum. My goal for this project is to discover and share several ideas about how to effectively implement student-centered math activities within the standards-based curriculum requirements that dominate today's public…

To ensure accurate interpretation of research findings, researchers should report details about their research design, data collection method, and response rates when presenting findings from survey research. A review of 100 peer-reviewed articles reporting the results of survey research on K-12 schools with principals as the designated…

There are few topics more controversial in higher education than the evaluation of teaching effectiveness. The continuing relevancy of issues relating to what constitutes an effective teacher and methods by which to measure such effectiveness is evidenced by the more than 2,000 articles devoted to this topic by researchers in a wide variety of…

For a number of years, the California community colleges have used data from annual statewide surveys conducted by the Kern Community College District and the California Community College Trustees (CCCT) for comparative faculty salary information. Both the Kern and CCCT studies rely upon the device of selecting benchmark points (such as the…

Reviews California legislation related to work safety and injury prevention as they pertain to farmworkers. Describes types of work injuries and illnesses and supplies the state's statistics for their occurrence. Provides a source for identifying workplace hazards and devising safety measures and training programs. (KS)

A study was conducted to develop baseline information on special education early intervention programs. A review of the literature revealed the following: the effects of a stimulating or depriving environment appear to be most powerful in the early years of childhood; there is evidence that the effects of early intervention programs for children…

In the fall of 2005, CPEC staff convened an Accountability Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) with representatives from the public and private university systems, the community college system, the Department of Education, and education researchers. The purpose of this committee was to obtain feedback regarding the Commission's online data…

This report provides a comprehensive account of the performance of students with disabilities on state assessment measures. Following an overview of the issues, it explains the laws that govern the reporting of assessment results (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA) and Title I of the Elementary and Secondary…

This report examines the dimensions, causes, and consequences of the dropout problem for California youth aged 12-17. School enrollment data and data from the 1976 Department of Health, Education, and Welfare Survey of Income and Education (SIE) were used to assess the current dropout rate. SIE statistics were also used to describe the age, sex,…

Discussion of public libraries' information and referral services for culturally diverse communities focuses on a study conducted in southern California that examined the information seeking behavior of ethnolinguistic gatekeepers in minority communities. Topics addressed include information and referral models; information sources; the perception…

In 1990, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) included a Trial State Assessment (TSA); for the first time in the NAEP's history, voluntary state-by-state assessments were made. The sample was designed to represent the 8th grade public school population in a state or territory. In 1996, 44 states, the District of Columbia, Guam,…