According to the Texas Education Code §29.121 and the Houston Independent School District (HISD) Board Policy, Gifted and Talented (G/T) students are "those identified by professionally qualified persons, who perform at, or show the potential for performing at a remarkably high level of accomplishment when compared to others of the same age,…

This dissertation explores the views and experiences of high school calculus teachers and college mathematics professors on the professional development which occurs at the annual national AP Calculus exam grading. This professional development experience comes in several forms: the exam briefing sessions, the actual reading of the exams, the…

In Fall 2010, the Niswonger Foundation received a five-year validation grant from the Investing in Innovation Fund (i3) to create the Northeast Tennessee College and Career Ready Consortium of 29 high schools and five colleges. This report evaluates the Consortium's impact on student outcomes during each of the four years of program…

Counter to narratives of persistently failed school reform, we argue that reforms sometimes succeed and seek to understand why. Drawing on examples from the founding of public schools to the present, we find that successful system-wide reforms addressed problems that teachers thought they had by being consistent with prevailing norms and values,…

Acceleration programs are academically challenging courses in which high school students can simultaneously earn credit toward a high school diploma and a postsecondary degree (dual credit). These programs include Advanced Placement courses, concurrent-enrollment courses, Postsecondary Enrollment Options courses (a dual-enrollment program in…

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 National Math + Science Initiative's (NMSI's) College Readiness Program (CRP) is an established program whose goal is to promote science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in high schools to improve students' readiness for college. It provides teacher, student, and school supports to promote high school students' success in…

The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program was developed to increase the number of secondary students who participate in rigorous academic courses, to accelerate student learning, and to improve student performance. The AVID program in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) targets students who (1) are in the academic…

Acceleration programs are challenging courses in which high school students can simultaneously earn credit toward a high school diploma and a college degree (dual credit). This study examined participation rates in acceleration programs and early college outcomes for the 2011 cohort of Minnesota high school graduates. Nearly half the graduates…

According to Section 29.123 of the Texas Education Code, the "Texas State Plan for the Education of Gifted/Talented Students" (G/T) forms the basis of program accountability for state-mandated services for G/T students. In the Houston Independent School District (HISD), G/T students were served through one of two program designs:…

The Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program was developed to increase the number of secondary students who participate in rigorous academic courses, to accelerate student learning, and to improve student performance. The AVID program in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) targets students who (1) are in the academic…

Our study analyzes the impact of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, a college-preparatory educational program designed for higher-achieving students, on high school academic achievement in Chicago Public Schools. We exploit exogenous variation in the offering of the program across schools over time with a difference-in-differences…

The College and Career Readiness Expansion project was a five-year, federally funded effort to implement early college strategies in comprehensive high schools. This report presents the results from a quasi-experimental impact study of the project and a mixed methods examination of its implementation. Results showed that the program increased the…

Research has repeatedly demonstrated the positive effects of acceleration for gifted and talented students. This study expands the literature by not only evaluating the impact of early grade skipping on high school and college outcomes but also examining the role of postacceleration opportunities on subsequent performance. Using a representative…

This study explored the impact of the English Advanced Placement (AP) program on college success among rural Appalachian students attending four private colleges in central and eastern Kentucky: Alice Lloyd College, Georgetown College, Lindsey Wilson College, and University of the Cumberlands. A Pearson Product-Moment Correlation r and an…