Many high schools in the United States are contending with modest student writing achievement and looking for ways to enhance teachers' writing instruction. This is especially the case for schools deemed to be "underperforming" and struggling to reform writing pedagogy against an accumulation of teacher and leadership turnover, limited…

The purpose of the current study was to examine features of adolescent reading comprehension trajectories and make within-person and between-person analyses of growth that occurs during the high school grades. Racial and socioeconomic group differences of the adolescent reading trajectories were also investigated and compared. This examination…

In Canada, about 6% of 15-year-olds attend a private school. Although some provincial governments subsidize a portion of the costs, parents must still pay for their child to attend. Differences in the academic outcomes of children who attend public and private schools continue to attract public attention. A central issue is the extent to which…

NCLB seeks to level the playing field by narrowing class and racial gaps in school performance by establishing common expectations. No Child Left Behind Act (2001) increases the standards of accountability for states and schools, thus requiring educational leaders to rethink current school strategies. Holding individual schools accountable for the…

This Information Capsule answers the most frequently asked questions about M-DCPS' academic performance during the 2011-2012 school year. Over the past year, the Florida Department of Education made over 28 changes to the school grading formula, including the transition to new, more rigorous assessments, new accountability components, and…

The authors examine whether standards based accountability reforms of the past two decades have closed the achievement gap among public and private high school students. They analyzed data from the Education Longitudinal Study (ELS) to examine sector differences in high school achievement in the era of standards based reforms. The authors found…

For 24 consecutive years, the Public Policy Forum has compiled and analyzed data from southeastern Wisconsin's public school districts in order to better inform policymakers and the public about the effectiveness of the region's K-12 education system. This analysis of the 2009-10 academic year, like many of the previous reports, indicates cause…

In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Missouri showed across-the-board gains--improvements in both reading and math at the basic, proficient and advanced levels for all racial/ethnic subgroups, low income students, and boys and girls. Results on achievement gaps were mixed. Comparable data were…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Ohio for 2010. In grade 8 math (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Ohio showed a clear trend of gains for all major subgroups at the basic-and-above, proficient-and-above, and advanced levels, with one exception. In grade 8 reading,…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Nevada for 2010. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Nevada showed across-the-board gains--improvements in both reading and math at the basic, proficient and advanced levels for all racial/ethnic subgroups, low income…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in North Carolina for 2010. In grade 8 math (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), North Carolina made gains across the board for all major subgroups at the basic-and-above, proficient-and-above, and advanced levels. Progress in narrowing…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Minnesota for 2010. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Minnesota showed mostly gains in reading at the basic, proficient, and advanced levels for racial/ethnic subgroups, low income students, and boys and girls. In math,…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Montana for 2010. In grade 8 reading (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Montana showed across-the-board gains at the basic-and-above, proficient-and-above, and advanced levels for the state's major racial/ethnic subgroups and…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in Massachusetts for 2010. In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Massachusetts showed across-the-board gains--improvements in both reading and math at the basic, proficient and advanced levels for all racial/ethnic subgroups, low…

After eight years of implementing the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and other school reforms, how much progress have states, school districts, and schools made in raising achievement for students from all backgrounds and closing achievement gaps based on race, ethnicity, income, and gender? To help answer this question, the Center on…