In this article, we use administrative data from three cohorts of North Carolina public high school students to examine the effects of within-school segregation on the propensity of academically eligible black high school students to take advanced math courses. Our identification strategy takes advantage of cohort-to-cohort variation in the share…

Career and Technical Education (CTE) has long played a substantial, though controversial, role within America's public schools. While supporters argue that CTE may increase student engagement and prepare students for success in the workforce, detractors caution that CTE may inhibit students' access to the rigorous academic coursework needed for…

This memorandum provides information on Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2021-2022 school year in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). The College Board shifted their testing procedures in 2019-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the…

This memorandum provides information related to Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2020-2021 school year in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In this memo, the results of 2021 students were compared with those of 2019 students. It is important…

This research is comprised of a three-part examination of equity, access, achievement, and learning in precollege physics. The first study examined teacher-level and school-level predictors of student performance in physics, with a focus on isolated teachers in New York during the 2016-17 academic year. Results indicated 40% of physics teachers…

College Preparatory Programs with Exams (CPPEs) include academically-rigorous high school classes that culminate in standardized exam-based assessments. Students take the classes as part of their high school schedule and apply them toward their graduation requirements, typically whether or not they take the exams at the end. Without the exam,…

This memorandum provides information related to Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) course enrollment, exam participation, and exam performance during the 2018-2019 school year in Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS). In 2019, all 25 MCPS comprehensive high schools offered AP courses and 8 high schools provided IB…

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…

This Research Brief summarizes the performance of Miami-Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) students participating in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program. The IB program was offered at six M-DCPS high schools in 2016-2017. The number of IB examinations taken in M-DCPS increased by five percent from 2015-2016 to 2016-2017. During the same…

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…

Over the past decade, the field of teacher professional learning has coalesced around core characteristics of high quality professional development experiences (e.g. Borko, Jacobs, & Koellner, 2010. Contemporary approaches to teacher professional development. In P. L. Peterson, E. Baker, & B. McGaw (Eds.), "International encyclopedia…

The continuing emphasis by Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) on rigorous course taking resulted in MCPS students taking a record-setting 33,662 Advanced Placement (AP) exams in 2014. Additionally, the percentage of AP exams taken by MCPS students who attained scores of 3 or higher (73.9 percent) was 13.0 and 16.7 percentage points…

This memorandum provides data on the participation and performance of Advanced Placement (AP) exams taken by students in the Montgomery County (Maryland) Public Schools (MCPS) in the 2012-2013 school year as compared with those by public school students in Maryland and the nation. Generally, the number of AP exams taken by MCPS students in 2013…

In dual enrollment (DE), high school students are enrolled in a college course and complete all the assignments that would normally be completed as part of the course. At the end of the course, they are given a final grade on a college transcript and course credit that can be applied toward a college degree. Dual enrollment programs differ from…

This report presents selected findings from the Public School and Private School Data Files of the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS). SASS is a nationally representative sample survey of public and private K-12 schools, principals, and teachers in the 50 states and the District of Columbia. School districts associated with public schools…