The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme provides an academically challenging curriculum that when combined with moral and religious formation prepares graduates of Catholic secondary schools to succeed in college and to live as Christian citizens in an interconnected global society. Although the financial cost of the program is high,…

Although institutional recognition of high school psychology is fairly recent, psychology and psychological subject matters have a history dating to at least the 1830s. By the middle of the twentieth century, high school psychology courses existed in nearly all U.S. states, and enrollments grew throughout the second half of the century. However,…

We have just completed the data collection for our 2012-13 Nationwide Survey of High School Physics and expect to have results to report in the spring. In the interim, we will take a look at physics in two-year colleges (TYCs). In 2007, we surveyed undergraduate seniors in degree-granting physics departments, and we asked these students if they…

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…

Scope and Method of Study: As Oklahoma grows in technical markets, the need for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) educated individuals will continue to increase. Our focus in aviation should be at focusing to attract students into STEM related fields, however, a stronger focus needs to be in retaining the top tier category…

High school feedback reports let school and district leaders know where their students go after graduation and how well they are prepared for college and beyond. This roadmap discusses the seven key focus areas the Data Quality Campaign (DQC) recommends states work on to ensure quality implementation of high school feedback reports.

The artmaking process is increasingly accepted in experimental forms of qualitative ethnographic, narrative, and phenomenological research in the social sciences, psychology, and education. Some artists and art educators are taking idea of using art practice in research a step further and claiming that art practice is research. That is to say,…

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP or DP) is a curriculum available to students in the final two years of high school. The library and school librarian can play a role in the school's Diploma program, alongside students, faculty, and administration. School librarians new to the program often ask about guidelines or documents…

"Seizing the Future: How Ohio's Career and Technical Education Programs Fuse Academic Rigor and Real-World Experiences to Prepare Students for College and Work," demonstrates Ohio's progress in developing strong policies for career and technical education (CTE) programs to promote rigor, including college- and career-ready graduation…

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 article examines the factors that determine a high school's probability of offering Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses. The likelihood that a school offers advanced courses, and the number of sections that it offers, is largely driven by having a critical mass of students who enter high school with…

This study explores whether students from low-income families and racial/ethnic minority groups have the opportunity to benefit in what is arguably the most rigorous type of credit-based transition program: the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP). The analyses first describe national longitudinal trends in characteristics of…

Background: Access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses is stratified by class and race. Researchers have identified how schools serving disadvantaged students suffer from various kinds of resource deprivations, concluding that interventions are needed to equalize access to AP courses. On the other hand, the theory of Effectively Maintained…

This article describes a nearly decade-long partnership between three institutions representing school, public, and academic settings in Westchester County, New York. The program, designed to improve the academic performance of local high school students, is unique due to the extensive contact students have with academic librarians during the…

Participation in Advanced Placement (AP) classes and AP test-taking are widely viewed as indicators of students' college readiness. We analyzed enrollment in AP courses and AP test outcomes in Arizona to document disparities in students' access to rigorous curricula in high school and outline some implications of these patterns for education…