This qualitative study was based on grounded theory and used purposive sampling for selecting participants. The sample for this study included 12 of the 16 superintendents in this region. This rural Appalachian region has historically outperformed the remainder of the southeastern state on reading and math achievement tests at the elementary and…

In recent years, governors, chief state school officers, business leaders, and college faculty have grown increasingly concerned that American students are not adequately prepared either for college or for the workforce. Governors and chief state school officers understood that the changing economy and persistent achievement gaps required a…

The Mathematics Performance Expectations (MPE) define the content and level of achievement students must reach to be academically prepared for success in entry-level, credit-bearing mathematics courses in college or career training. They were developed through a process that involved faculty from Virginia's two- and four-year colleges and…

The purpose of this study was to determine if there were a significant difference in math and reading academic achievement scores between eighth-grade students attending year-round calendar schools and eighth-grade students attending traditional calendar schools based on the TCAP. In addition, this study investigated math and reading achievement…

The purpose of this dissertation was to utilize the ELS: 2002 longitudinal data to highlight the achievement of African American students relative to other racial sub-groups in mathematics and science and to highlight teacher oriented variables that might influence their achievement. Various statistical tools, including descriptive statistics,…

Beyond the intrinsic value of music to cultures worldwide, education in music has benefits for young people that transcend the musical domain. The Arts Education Partnership (AEP) reviewed an extensive body of research to identify high-quality, evidence-based studies that document student learning outcomes associated with an education in and…

This quantitative research study was designed to examine the relationship between system resource allocation patterns and student achievement, as measured by eighth grade Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) mathematics, eighth grade CRCT reading, eleventh grade Georgia High School Graduation Test (GHSGT) mathematics, eleventh grade and…

A central goal of secondary mathematics is for students to learn to use powerful algebraic strategies appropriately. Research has demonstrated student difficulties in the transition to using such strategies. We examined strategies used by several thousand 8th-, 9th-, and 10th-grade students in five different school systems over three consecutive…

This study used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey, Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999, to (a) estimate mathematics achievement trends through 5th grade in the population of students who are English-language proficient by the end of kindergarten, (b) compare trends across primary language groups within this English-language proficient…

This study examined the relations of age, preschool experience, and gender with children's school readiness levels at kindergarten entry. The sample included 5,512 children of predominantly Hispanic heritage and from families experiencing low socioeconomic circumstances. A series of between-subjects ANOVAs indicated that age…

President Barack Obama's Race to the Top (RTT) is a profoundly flawed educational reform plan that increases standardization, centralization, and test-based accountability in our nation's schools. Following a brief summary of the interest groups supporting the plan, who is currently participating in this race, why so many states voluntarily…

Previous studies on the role of the school in influencing attainment in South African schools have concluded that the inequalities which are known to exist in these are still largely due to the legacy of the Apartheid system. More recently, policy focus has been on narrowing the gap between the attainment of different socio-economic groups by…

Researchers often compare the relationship between an outcome and covariate for two or more groups by evaluating whether the fitted regression curves differ significantly. When they do, researchers need to determine the "significance region," or the values of the covariate where the curves significantly differ. In analysis of covariance (ANCOVA),…

Correlation and regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship of student mobility (as expressed by the school-level mobility rate) and first through fifth grade reading, language arts, and mathematics achievement for a statewide sample of 1062 elementary schools. Comparison data were analyzed to further investigate the relationship…

Racial inequality in education is a serious problem in the United States. The latest government attempt to address this problem was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). This study used the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002) to examine the relationship between race and composite reading and math scores among Black and White…