This article reports findings obtained from a large-scale national study (299 schools; 2761 students) that examined academic achievements of immigrants in Israeli schools. It focused on two distinct groups of immigrant students--those from the former USSR and from Ethiopia, in two subject areas--mathematics and academic language (Hebrew), and in…

In 2005, the "Kappan" published a report of the authors' research on student achievement in public and private schools, based on an analysis of the 2000 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Most people assumed that the higher average scores in private schools meant that private schools were more effective--an assumption that…

This study examines the effects of public preschool expenditures on the math and science scores of 4th graders, holding constant child, family, and school characteristics, other relevant social expenditures, and country and year effects, in 7 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries--Australia, Japan, the…

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) underpins its extensive policy work with strong databases of comparable statistics and indicators with which it compares countries. In 2000, it extended its education database with its first collection of data on the performances of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science…

During the 2009-10 academic year, 1,444 8th grade students in the Canton City, Plain and Marlington Local School Districts (hereafter called Stark students) took the EXPLORE Test as part of a pilot project, "Ready to Go: Increasing Eighth Grade Readiness," sponsored by the Stark Education Partnership with funding from the Ohio College…

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation and public pressure to prepare students for the twenty-first century has put increasing demands on schools to improve student performance. This action research study examined the efforts of an elementary school principal and her third and fourth grade teachers to improve students' performance in math. The…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in North Dakota for 2010. In grade 8 reading and math (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), North Dakota showed across-the-board gains at the basic-and-above, proficient-and-above, and advanced levels for the state's major racial/ethnic…

Reported here are the results of analyses to describe the patterns of identification and academic and developmental outcomes for children with disabilities, conducted as part of the 2004 National Assessment of the implementation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This report provides background context for National…

The "No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB)" is designed to achieve an ambitious goal: All children will be proficient in reading and mathematics by the 2013-14 school year. A key strategy for achieving this goal is accountability. Based on findings from two federally funded studies--the Study of State Implementation of Accountability…

This paper describes the background, methodology, preliminary findings, and anticipated future directions of a large-scale multi-year randomized field experiment addressing the efficacy of ST Math [Spatial-Temporal Math], a fully-developed math curriculum that uses interactive animated software. ST Math's unique approach minimizes the use of…

Whether in health, in education, or in material well-being, some children will always fall behind the average. The critical question is -- how far behind? Is there a point beyond which falling behind is not inevitable but policy susceptible, not unavoidable but unacceptable, not inequality but inequity? There are no widely agreed theoretical…

Each year, Austin Independent School District (AISD) measures students' perceptions of their school environment. This district report examines longitudinal trends in school climate from 2007-2008 through 2009-2010.

This longitudinal study investigated the academic and cognitive characteristics of persistent mathematics difficulty (MD-p) from first to fourth grade. Ninety-nine children were retrospectively categorized into one of three groups: MD-p, transient mathematics difficulty (MD-t), or typically developing. MD-p was defined as persistently low…

Work-based learning interventions, particularly cooperative education, are a viable way to support the post-high school transition process, enhance work-related cognitive development, and increase the occupational engagement of at-risk youth. Using propensity score matching to analyze data from the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002…

This study featured validity evidence for scores from states' alternate assessments of alternate academic achievement standards (AA-AASs). It evaluated students from 6 states who were eligible for an AA-AAS concurrently with measures of academic competence and adaptive behavior. The investigators also assessed students with disabilities who were…