This study was designed to examine the effects of a whole school reform, the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), specifically designed to raise academic achievement of at-risk urban middle school students by establishing an extended school day and year, a rigorous curriculum, after-school access to teachers, and increased family-school connections.…

With a view of standardized testing as a situated local practice that serves "global" agendas, I examine the specific ways that this bureaucratic mechanism receives, sorts, arranges and classifies adult learners of English; inspires certain pedagogical practices; and fosters identities desired by the new global economy. Relying on data gathered…

While recent research has begun to explore how social studies teachers are responding to a standardized curriculum and its accompanying high-stakes tests, little is known about how teacher education programs are preparing their pre-service teachers for a world in which state curriculum standards and standardized testing often determine the content…

Using a nationally representative sample from the National Educational Longitudinal Study, this research examines the longitudinal effects of race and socioeconomic status on 12th-grade educational achievement and achievement 2 years after high school. For 12th-grade outcomes, the authors found no statistical difference in scores between Hispanic…

The NEAIR 2010 Conference Proceedings is a compilation of papers presented at the Saratoga Springs, New York conference. Papers in this document include: (1) Collaboration Between Student Affairs and Institutional Research: A Model for the Successful Assessment of Students' College Experience (Michael N. Christakis and Joel D. Bloom); (2) Direct…

This study examined the impact of NISL's [National Institute for School Leadership's] Executive Development Program for principals on student achievement in Pennsylvania schools between 2006-2009. Roughly half of the NISL-trained principals started the program during the 2007 school year and completed it in the 2008 school year, whereas the other…

This is a research brief of a longer report, also published as "Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language Summary Report, 2009-2010". Twenty-nine percent of students enrolled in Austin Independent School District were English language learners in 2009-2010. The majority of them (62%) continued to make progress in English…

A tuition-free, vocational, English as a second language (ESL) program offered at a large community college suffers from high attrition as well as student dissatisfaction with curriculum. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, longitudinal study was to assess the effectiveness of a specific ESL curriculum supplement as an intervention to…

The Swedish school system comprises: (1) Pre-primary school (Forskola), typical age 1-5; (2) Preschool class in the compulsory school (Grundskola) typical age 6 (participation voluntary); (3) Compulsory school, typical age 7-16, grades 1-9, and (4) Upper secondary school, 17 programmes (4 mainly academic, 13 vocational), typical age 16-19, grades…

The purpose of the study is to examine the differential validity and prediction of the SAT using a nationally representative sample of first-year college students admitted with the revised version of the SAT. The findings demonstrate that there are similar patterns of differential validity and prediction by gender, race/ethnicity, and best…

This applied dissertation was designed to evaluate a Reading Recovery program at an alternative school in Florida. The Reading Recovery program was used as an intervention for improving students' reading skills and performances on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) that is given each year to students in Grades 7 and 8. The…

Teacher preparation programs have continued to see the ever-increasing control of teacher candidates by policymakers. To control means to regulate. The problem, according to these authors, is that there are currently at least three regulating measurement and assessment obstacles faced by teacher candidates in teacher preparation programs. The…

Title I, Part A, of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) provides financial assistance through State Educational Agencies (SEAs) to Local Educational Agencies (LEAs or school districts) and public schools with high numbers or percentages of disadvantaged children to help ensure that all children meet challenging state academic content and student…

The conventional use of standardized testing within a discrepancy analysis model is reviewed. The Response-to-Intervention (RTI) process is explained, along with descriptions of assessment procedures within RTI: functional assessment, authentic assessment, curriculum-based measurement, and play-based assessment. Psychometric issues relevant to RTI…

Assessment for learning involves the frequent, continual use of both formal and informal classroom assessments. It can be as simple as requiring students to respond to a lesson-embedded, one-item quiz as a way of gauging student understanding of what is being taught. Ideally, this innovative approach to classroom assessment is based on a careful…