This paper examines whether a literacy intervention involving generic and content area literacy components can improve both achievement on a standardized reading test and the attainment of secondary school qualifications, and whether the intervention can be implemented by teachers in their regular classroom settings. We report on a design-based…

The short-term emphasis engendered by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has focused research predominantly on unraveling the complexities and uncertainties in assessing short-term results, rather than developing methods and assessing results over the longer term. In this paper we focus on estimating long-term gains and address questions important to…

California is in the midst of a major K-12 reform effort. In 2010, the state adopted the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), which outline what students should know in mathematics and English. In 2013, it adopted tests of the new standards developed by the Smarter Balanced Assessment Collaborative (SBAC). These tests will be administered beginning…

This paper describes a secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores by gender. Data were national public 4th- and 8th-grade reading scores from composite and subscales for 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013. Twelfth-grade scores for composite and literary experience from 2005, 2009, and 2013 and gain…

The need to adequately prepare all students for the next stage in their lives has led a number of states to adopt new educational standards that reflect the expectation that all high school students will be ready for college and career when they graduate. The report "Communicating College and Career Readiness through Proficiency…

This study of 952 fifth and sixth graders in Washington, DC, and Alexandria, Virginia, found that students who were offered the "Higher Achievement" program had higher test scores in mathematical problem solving and were more likely to be admitted to and attend private competitive high schools. "Higher Achievement" is a…

This quantitative causal comparative study looked to see if there was a relationship between childhood obesity and student achievement. Because of the many conflicting results in the research available, it was not known if there was a relationship between childhood obesity and student achievement among inner-city middle school students in a school…

This report describes the Achieve 180 Program in Year 2. The 53 participating schools received Texas Education Agency campus accountability ratings of "Improvement Required" (IR), "Not Rated," or "Former Improvement Required" at the end of the 2017-2018 school year. The 2018-2019 Achieve 180 Program's centralized…

This article is a version of a lecture given by the author at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2012. He reviews his book, "Bad Teacher!: How Blaming Teachers Distorts the Bigger Picture." He examines the issues within the school reform movement in American public education--focusing on what he calls the "bifurcation of…

The Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA) is a vehicle for public four-year universities to report comparable information about the undergraduate student experience via the College Portrait, a common web reporting template. The National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment (NILOA) was asked by the VSA to evaluate the effectiveness of the…

A long line of research on behavioral economics has established the importance of factors that are typically absent from the standard economic framework: reference dependent preferences, hyperbolic preferences, and the value placed on non-financial rewards. To date, these insights have had little impact on the way the educational system operates.…

This paper investigates the extent to which spring-to-spring testing timelines bias teacher value-added as a result of conflating summer and school-year learning. Using a unique dataset that contains both fall and spring standardized test scores, the author examines the patterns in school-year versus summer learning. She estimates value-added…

Teacher preparation programs in U.S. colleges and universities have been forced to re-evaluate curricular and student teaching requirements due to federal reform initiatives to support accreditation standards. A state-determined assessment must be passed to earn teaching credentials and in the state of Missouri candidates must pass the appropriate…

The process of strategically planning enrollment in higher education, particularly at private institutions has seen tremendous changes in a short period of time. Changes in perspectives toward the value of a college degree, along with economic and social factors, have contributed to the difficulty of discovering relationships affecting enrollment.…

In recent times, research has revealed a dynamic shift in the perception of racial inequality in the contemporary United States, with an increased belief that racial discrimination is a concern of a bygone era (Hunt 2007). When they are acknowledged, enduring racial disparities in life chances are often attributed to differences in marketable…