This study was designed to add to the body of work around specialized campuses in the state of Texas. These campuses are becoming increasingly popular across the nation and there is little data to support whether they or traditional campuses are more successful when it comes to student outcomes. This research aims to determine if specialized…

High school graduation rates have increased dramatically in the past two decades. Some skepticism has arisen, however, because of the confluence of the graduation rise and the starts of high-stakes accountability for graduation rates with "No Child Left Behind" (NCLB). In this study we provide some of the first evidence about the role of…

Career and technical education (CTE) programs have been a part of secondary education reform efforts in Georgia aimed at closing the achievement gaps among disadvantaged groups and preparing all students to be college and career ready. The problem is African-American students with learning disabilities (AASWLD) continue to have worse postsecondary…

This study focuses on quantitative long-term effects of Supplemental Instruction (SI) in terms of graduation and dropout rates. One of the main aims of SI is to introduce students to effective study strategies and techniques. If SI is introduced at an early stage for new students in higher education, it should therefore be expected that this…

Much has been written about the controversy surrounding performance-based school closures, but there has been no rigorous assessment of their impact on student achievement. Does the closure process harm students who are enrolled in a school while it is being phased out? Are future students better-off because a low-performing option has been…

Identifying schools that are beating the odds--schools that are exceeding academic performance expectations, given the composition of their student body--can lead to promising practices that other schools serving similar populations can implement. Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast & Islands used data on high-poverty high schools in…

We analyze how fatal shootings in high schools affect schools and students using data from shooting databases, school report cards, and the Common Core of Data. We examine schools' test scores, enrollment, number of teachers, graduation, attendance, and suspension rates at schools that experienced a shooting, employing a difference-in-differences…

In this study we investigated determinants of the graduation rate of public alternative schools by analyzing the most recent, nationally representative data from Schools and Staffing Survey 2007-2008. Based on the literature, we built a series of three regression models via successive block entry, predicting the graduate rate first by (a) student…

A problem recognized in the United States is that a K-12 public education in urban communities is more likely to support existing patterns of inequality than to serve as a pathway to opportunity. The specific focus of this research was on the poor academic performance in U.S. K-12 urban communities. Using Benet's polarities of democracy theory as…

The Regional Educational Laboratory Northeast and Islands conducted this study using data on public high schools in Puerto Rico from national and territory databases to compare methods for identifying beating-the-odds schools. Schools were identified by two methods, a status method that ranked high-poverty schools based on their current observed…

An alarming convergence of factors--diminishing percentages of high school graduates enrolling immediately in postsecondary education, traditionally underserved students comprising a growing proportion of the overall U.S. school population, and projections that more occupations in the future will need education beyond high school--suggest that…

The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of early preparation for postsecondary education and explore the effectiveness of Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). This comparative case study included 836 students from two cohorts (GEAR UP and Non GEAR UP). We compared high school attendance,…

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…

The educational system in the United States continues to pose many challenges for law and policy makers. Many of these challenges can be traced back to two landmark cases, "Plessy vs. Ferguson" and "Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka." And, while the U.S. Department of Education developed programs to address many of these…