This essay provides a two-pronged critical assessment of a subset of the literature on racial disproportionality in special education: that which aims to estimate racial disparities among otherwise similar children. This body of research has shown that Black students are less likely than "comparable" White students to receive special…

This article examines the federal role in adolescent literacy from its roots in Lyndon B. Johnson's administration with the Economic Opportunity Act (1964) through the Reading for Understanding grants of 2010. The authors consider the extent to which the recent attention to and changes in the federal approach to adolescent literacy can be…

Many articles and reports have reviewed, researched, and commented on international assessments from the perspective of exploring what is relevant for the United States' education systems. Researchers make claims about whether the top-performing systems have transferable practices or policies that could be applied to the United States. However,…

The goal of the "Closing the Achievement Gap for 21st Century Learners in West Virginia (CAG)" report, 3rd edition, is to update West Virginia educators to the status and improvement of student achievement in West Virginia which may then be utilized as a basis for determining future educational decisions. In order to enhance the quality…

Education policymakers have long sought to establish teaching standards that will measure new or continuing teachers against these standards. The problem is, existing methods for certifying teachers have been criticized for being either so onerous as to deter good candidates or so lax as to keep weak teachers in the profession. To provide another…

In the spirit of educational reform efforts, public schools have national goals for the first time and are under pressure to adopt a national curriculum, national testing, and parental choice of schools. School reform depends on upgrading teacher education. Only a more carefully recruited, better prepared, and more professionally rewarded teaching…

The following position papers on evaluation are presented: (1) "Curricular and Comprehensive Program Evaluation," by Ray Clifford; (2) Evaluation--Proficiency Goals, CBTE National Assessment: How Do They Interrelate?" by Randall L. Jones; and (3) "Priorities in Classroom Testing for the 1980s," by Alice C. Omaggio. The first paper describes an…

Nearly 20 years ago, the first national assessment of student achievement in U.S. history yielded disappointing results. Although policy-makers and researchers expressed great concern about the low scores, the federal government did not undertake large-scale efforts to address poor student performance, and few research dollars were dedicated to…

This publication was developed to provide factual information and interpretive commentary on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in Reading, a federally funded survey of the educational attainments of representative samples of children and adults in the United States. It summarizes the context and results of the 1970-71 and 1974-75…

Generalizations about rural youth can be misleading as they are heterogeneous in their backgrounds, cultural heritage, values, and aspirations. This diversity is especially apparent when ethnic subgroups are examined. Black and Hispanic rural youth tend to have lower levels of achievement than white rural youth. This should be kept in mind when…

A response to United States Senator George McGovern's call for congressional legislation to establish an independent national commission on literacy is necessary. Two considerations that must be taken into account by any individual, group, or commission addressing issues of criteria for competency in literacy are: (1) literacy competence is a…

On July 14, 2006, the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a study that compared the performance in reading and math of 4th and 8th graders attending private and public schools. According to the NCES study, students attending private schools performed better than students attending public schools.…

The challenge of making educational programs accessible to people with disabilities, combined with the increasing emphasis on testing and other forms of assessment, has translated into a need for accommodations in the testing and assessment of people with disabilities. Typically, test accommodations are provided for people with sensory and/or…