Has the academic achievement gap between high-income and low-income students changed over the last few decades? If so, why? And what can schools do about it? Researcher Sean F. Reardon conducted a comprehensive analysis of research to answer these questions and came up with some striking findings. In this article, he shows that income-related…

Immigrant youth who are designated as English language learners in American schools--whom we refer to as "emergent bilinguals"--are increasingly framed by numerical calculations. Utilizing the notion of assemblage from actor-network theory (ANT), we trace how emergent bilinguals are discursively constructed by officials, administrators,…

The USA was the first nation to attain universal secondary education through the creation of a unitary school structure capped by the uniquely American institution, the comprehensive or cosmopolitan high school. Other leading democratic nations adopted the comprehensive model, but not until well after mid-twentieth century. The modern movement for…

Multilevel modeling techniques were used with a sample of 643 students enrolled in 37 secondary school classrooms to predict future student achievement (controlling for baseline achievement) from observed teacher interactions with students in the classroom, coded using the Classroom Assessment Scoring System--Secondary. After accounting for prior…

As part of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading, students are asked to demonstrate their understanding of words as used in literary and informational texts. This focus on students' understanding of word meaning highlights the importance of vocabulary in reading comprehension. This report provides an overview of…

The Minnesota Department of Education has collected Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA) results on every American Indian student who has taken the tests. This information has been made available so communities and parents can assess how their districts, schools, and students are performing based upon MCA proficiency criteria. Prior to this…

The No Child Left Behind Act requires all students be proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014, and students in subgroups to make Adequate Yearly Progress. One of these groups is students with disabilities, who continue to score well below their general education peers. This quantitative study identified scoring differences between disability…

Today's students are facing higher academic and social standards than ever before in the history of education in the United States of America. Under federal legislation, No Child Left Behind (NCLB) states are required to administer standardized tests to students in grades three through eight to measure Language Arts and Mathematics competency.…

There is gap in passing rates on the standardized science assessment between European American and Hispanic American students. The purpose of this study was to examine student performance in science and the closing of the achievement gap between European American and Hispanic American students based upon receipt of an inquiry or noninquiry…

Synthetic control methods are an innovative matching technique first introduced within the economics and political science literature that have begun to find application in educational research as well. Synthetic controls create an aggregate-level, time-series comparison for a single treated unit of interest for causal inference with observational…

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 led to an increasing focus on standardized assessment data that culminated in the accountability policies in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and current reauthorization of ESEA. Advances in data system access and functionality, development of school cultures around data use, and an increasing…

The purpose of this quantitative study is to measure the effectiveness of alternative certification teachers versus traditionally trained teachers of 9th grade Hispanic students enrolled in Algebra I. The dependent variable, teacher effectiveness, will be measured by the students' raw score on the Texas Algebra I End Of Course (EOC) Assessment.…

The Houston Independent School District offers two different English as a Second Language (ESL) programs for students whose native language is not English and who need to develop and enhance their English language skills (English Language Learners, or ELLs). The Content-Based ESL model (CB-ESL) consists of an intensive program of English…

With a focus on assisting at-risk middle-school students in the Houston Independent School District (HISD) to succeed in school and graduate from high school, HISD and several area law enforcement agencies partnered together to conduct the Law Enforcement Mentoring Program. The purpose of this report is to assess the impact of the law enforcement…

Children with selective mutism (SM) display a failure to speak in select situations despite speaking when comfortable. The purpose of this study was to obtain valid assessments of receptive and expressive language in 33 children (ages 5 to 12) with SM. Because some children with SM will speak to parents but not a professional, another purpose was…