Prior to the mandatory testing and reporting required by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), school improvement efforts were shown to lack coherence (Newman, Smith, Allensworth, & Bryk, 2001) and often included conflicting programs (Hatch, 2002). Part of the theory of performance-based accountability in general, and NCLB in particular, was…

Many preschool children are affected by disabilities requiring intervention through Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE; Camilli, Vargas, Ryan, & Barnett, 2010). Such interventions can include speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling, and special education. Earlier delivery of these special education services…

Despite the importance of postsecondary education to the economic and social vitality of the U.S. and the individuals who pursue this academic goal, the educational pipeline to and through college is broken for communities of color, the fastest-growing segment of the population. This report offers a revealing glimpse of the American system of…

During the past decade, the use of standardized benchmark measures to differentiate and individualize instruction for students received renewed attention from educators. Although teachers may use their own assessments (tests, quizzes, homework, problem sets) for monitoring learning, it is challenging for them to equate performance on classroom…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of different dimensions of instructional leadership on student learning in Hong Kong secondary schools, whose broader institutional contexts are critically characterized by high accountability policy environments. Design/methodology/approach: This study utilizes standardized test scores…

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the size of Alabama's public high schools, selected school quality and financial indicators, and their students' performance on standardized exams. When the socioeconomic level of the student bodies is held constant, the size of high schools in Alabama has relatively little…

Purpose: Accurate description of an individual's communication status is critical in both research and practice. Describing the communication status of individuals with severe intellectual and developmental disabilities is difficult because these individuals often communicate with presymbolic means that may not be readily recognized. Our goal was…

This paper provides practical guidance for researchers who are designing and analyzing studies that randomize schools--which comprise three levels of clustering (students in classrooms in schools)--to measure intervention effects on student academic outcomes when information on the middle level (classrooms) is missing. This situation arises…

Standardized testing for higher education has been much in the news in the US over the last few years. In the wake of the Spellings Commission, the clear intent of the Department of Education's (USDOE) position in negotiated rulemaking in 2007 was to mandate its use in accreditation. Standardized testing is also a central feature of the Voluntary…

In this study, the authors examined the relationship between the various NSSE (National Survey of Student Engagement) survey items or classifications and the ETS Major Field Test (MFT) in Business. The sample consisted of 87 business students at a small liberal arts college. Many of the survey items were linked positively to the ETS Major Field…

While there remains little doubt that the "founding" preschool programs in America--the High/Scope Perry Program, the Chicago Child-Parent Centers, and the Abecedarian Project--had a positive academic and social impact on the students they served, such claims are difficult to substantiate for students being served in the Virginia…

This research compares differences between standardized test scores in problem-based learning (PBL) classrooms and a traditional classroom for 6th grade students using a mixed-method, quasi-experimental and qualitative design. The research shows that problem-based learning is as effective as traditional teaching methods on standardized tests. The…

Educators have recently come to consider inquiry based instruction as a more effective method of instruction than didactic instruction. Experience based learning theory suggests that student performance is linked to teaching method. However, research is limited on inquiry teaching and its effectiveness on preparing students to perform well on…

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationship between students' performance on the Cognitive Abilities Test (CogAT) and the fourth and fifth grade Reading and Math Achievement Tests in Ohio. The sample utilized students from a suburban school district in Northwest Ohio. Third grade CogAT scores (2006-2007 school year), 4th…

This study examined the extent to which end-of-course grades are predictive of Virginia Standards of Learning test scores in nine high school content areas. It also analyzed the impact of the variables school cluster attended, gender, ethnicity, disability status, Limited English Proficiency status, and socioeconomic status on the relationship…