The charter school movement encompasses many school models. In Massachusetts in the 2010's, the site of our study, urban charter schools primarily used "No Excuses" practices, whereas nonurban charters had greater model variety. Using randomized admissions lotteries, we estimate the impact of charter schools by locality on college…

Most of the literature on lottery-based charter school research focuses on charters in large urban centers, primarily finding that they raise standardized test scores. In contrast, the limited rigorous research on rural and suburban charters suggests that they reduce or do not affect test scores. However, this evidence is limited, and almost no…

High School graduation rates are key indicators of accountability for high schools and school districts in Oregon. Beginning with the 2008-09 school year, the Oregon Department of Education (ODE) implemented the cohort method of calculating graduation rates. The cohort method identifies the year the student entered high school for the first time…

The purpose of this causal comparative study is to determine whether the assistant principal decision-making process and their years of experience influence the advanced diploma rates in high schools on Long Island, New York. The subjects for this study were 75 assistant principals in Long Island high schools during 2016. Assistant principals'…

The report looks to the future of American history education. The report grows out of national and state polls that the Foundation conducted in late 2018 on Americans' knowledge of the history of their country. The Foundation's initial poll found that two out of three Americans were incapable of passing the U.S. citizenship test and led the…

Modern career academies aim to prepare students for college and the labor market. This paper examines the profile of students entering such academies in one school district and estimates causal effects of participation in one of the district's well-regarded academies on a range of high school and college outcomes. Using rich administrative data…

Funded by an Investing in Innovation (i3) Validation grant, the Rural Innovative Schools (RIS) Project is the first widespread effort to scale up the early college model by implementing it in comprehensive high schools. This paper will present preliminary findings from the evaluation of this project. The impact study uses a quasi-experimental…

Projections by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (2012) point to a need for approximately one million more Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) professionals than the U.S. will be able to produce considering the current rate of STEM postsecondary degree completions (Executive Office of the President of…

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through…

Developed in response to concerns that too few students were enrolling and succeeding in postsecondary education, early college high schools are small schools that blur the line between high school and college. This article presents results from a longitudinal experimental study comparing outcomes for students accepted to an early college through…

In a 2010 address to the College Board, U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan laid out a vision for high school that advances the Obama administration's goal of the U.S. once again leading the world in educational attainment. There is no grade in which the magnitude and complexity of this shift becomes clearer than in senior year. Historically,…

Have efforts to improve schools neglected high achievers? A growing chorus of critics is voicing concern for the achievement gap, but not the gap between well-to-do and poor students, or white and non-white students. The gap that most worries them is the one between U.S. students and students in other industrialized nations. Among the 34 nations…

The Southern Regional Education Board's (SREB's) case study series highlights best practices High Schools That Work (HSTW) network schools and districts are implementing to better prepare students for further studies and careers. Lee's Summit West (LSW) High School near Kansas City, Missouri, boasts of a 99 percent graduation rate; 93 percent of…

Nearly 7,000 students drop out of the nation's public high schools each school day, and 3,000 of them are in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states. Altogether, an estimated 1.3 million teenagers in the United States abandon high school each year without earning a diploma. In 1,700 of the nation's high schools, less than 60 percent of…

Increasingly, education policy makers understand the importance of students and families having access to a range of high quality educational opportunities inside and outside of school, 365 days a year. This paper explores the concept of multiple pathways in arts education to further conceptualize and build upon such opportunities, inside and…