A common argument leveled against charter schools is that they attract the most motivated and intelligent students from already struggling public schools. Marcus Winters seeks to examine this claim, known as "cream-skimming," by comparing the performance of New York City's (NYC) charter middle schools with a set of traditional selective…

A study by Mullen and Tallent-Runnels (2006) found significance in the differences between online and traditional students' reports of instructors' academic support, instructors' demands, and students' satisfaction. They also recognized that the limitation to their study was their demographic data. In an original report funded by the Alfred P.…

This paper examines and critiques several learning style inventories (LSI) in an effort to find the optimal research instrument for a proposed empirical study of both the quality of courseware and the impact of courseware characteristics on variations of learning effectiveness due to learner characteristics. Five LSIs are examined: (1) Dunn LSI;…

Discussed are the assumptions which underpin research studies of the effects of pupil, school, and local education authority characteristics on student achievement in Great Britain. The purpose is to clarify the necessary limitations on knowledge imposed by various research methods and to suggest how these might be improved. (RM)

A group of high school self-reported dropouts and a group of simulated high school dropouts were compared with graduates in their participation rates, efforts required for data collection, and the overall quality of their responses in the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972. The results indicate that dropouts are less…

The Contra Costa Community College District (CCCCD), in California, conducted a study to determine the type and number of transfer students served by both the CCCCD and by the University of California (UC), the California State University (CSU), or St. Mary's College (SMC) between 1982-83 and 1989-90. The study also assessed the completeness and…

This study uses a production function approach to identify the impact of student, parent, teacher, and school policy variables on student performance as measured by test scores. Our statistical analysis is conducted in a comparative institutional context that includes government, private, and non-governmental organization schools. We find that, at…

The Transfer Assembly is a research effort of the Los Angeles-based Center for the Study of Community Colleges. The Assembly defines transfer students as "all students entering a two-year college in a given year who have no prior college experience, who complete at least 12 credit units at the college, and who subsequently enroll at a senior…

The New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program (PreK) evaluation studied successive waves of children while they were in PreK, and as they progressed through the third grade. For each wave, two control groups were obtained: (1) A waiting-list control group, children in districts offering PreK programs who were identified as eligible for…