We investigate factors influencing student sign-ups for Washington State's College Bound Scholarship (CBS) program and consider whether there is scope for the program to change college enrollment expectations. We find that student characteristics associated with signing the scholarship closely parallel characteristics of low-income students who…

We examined associations between the quality of kindergarten teachers' mathematics instruction and their students' achievement and motivation in mathematics. Using a sample of 20 kindergarten teachers and their 285 students, we rated five video-recorded mathematics lessons per teacher throughout the spring semester with the Mathematical Quality of…

We evaluate the long-term effects of a "girl-friendly" primary school program in Burkina Faso, using a regression discontinuity design. Ten years later, primary school-age children in villages selected for the program attend school more often and score significantly higher on standardized tests. We also find long-term effects on academic…

Meeting standardized test benchmarks is a challenge for elementary school students in Texas. The problem is that some elementary schools do not meet the performance standards of the fourth-grade STAAR state test average. Problem-based learning is a model used in schools to initiate problem-solving skills with a hands-on approach to real-world…

"U.S. students are being educated less well these days than they should be," writes W. James Popham. One key contributing factor is that educators often use the wrong tests to make their most important educational decisions. Two recent events have made it a perfect time to change the way we conduct our educational testing: growing…

A pilot program in New Hampshire models innovative ways creating and applying state assessments and educator accountability. A study of New Hampshire's new system, which has already received approval by the U.S. Department of Education under a waiver from NCLB, finds some positive results and also suggests challenges states might face in putting…

The Thomas B. Fordham Institute has released a report, "Evaluating the Content and Quality of Next Generation Assessments," ostensibly an evaluative comparison of four testing programs, the Common Core derived SBAC and PARCC, ACT's Aspire, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts' MCAS. Of course, anyone familiar with Fordham's past work…

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education initiatives have placed pressure on teachers to bring technology tools into classroom, including three-dimensional (3D) printing. Yet, little research has examined what specific math skills are required for 3D printing technology. This article describes a follow-up analysis of…

This longitudinal quantitative study examines the first and second language vocabulary development of prekindergarten students enrolled in an inclusive foreign language exploratory (FLEX) program. The FLEX program, framed by the Cognitive Retroactive Hypothesis of cross-linguistic transfer, is situated in a context where students with special…

The Every Student Succeeds Act supports personalized learning (PL) to close achievement gaps of diverse K-12 learners in the United States. Implementing PL into a classroom entails a paradigm change of the educational system. However, it is demanding to transform traditional practice into a personalized one under the pressure of the annual…

Although the number of countries conducting large-scale assessments has increased significantly over the past two decades, this has not necessarily led to the effective use of learning assessment data in policy-making and planning. To better understand the reasons for this, the UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning (IIEP)…

After a challenging fall semester, a national survey from Public Agenda finds that K-12 teachers and parents are largely on the same page regarding education during the COVID-19 pandemic. Just over half of both teachers and parents feel that their communities value teachers more now than before the pandemic. While only one-third of parents think…

Is public housing bad for children? Critics charge that public housing projects concentrate poverty and create neighborhoods with limited opportunities, including low-quality schools. However, whether the net effect is positive or negative is theoretically ambiguous and likely to depend on the characteristics of the neighborhood and schools…

This article reports from Stanford University's Innovative Assessments Institute on the development of performance assessment at scale, along with implementation recommendations. An accountability system built on the implementation of performance assessments has the potential to foster deeper and more authentic learning for students and more…

While conceptual understanding of properties, operations, and the base-ten number system is certainly associated with the ability to access math facts fluently, the role of math fact memorization to promote conceptual understanding remains contested. In order to gain insight into this question, this study looks at the results when one of three…