In spring 2015 Mississippi began testing the college readiness of all grade 11 public high school students and found that approximately 18 percent were ready for college math, a percentage that had changed little by 2017/18. This study examined: (1) the sequences of math courses that Mississippi students took in grades 6-11; (2) the math…

In spring 2015 Mississippi began testing the college readiness of all grade 11 public high school students and found that approximately 18 percent were ready for college math, a percentage that had changed little by 2017/18. This study examined: (1) the sequences of math courses that Mississippi students took in grades 6-11; (2) the math…

Adolescents in the urban public school system experience childhood trauma that sometimes makes it difficult to focus on learning. Even more so, sometimes trauma experienced by youth manifests in disruptive behaviors in the school setting. Traditionally, urban public schools have focused on teaching and learning academics, generally neglecting the…

Description: Effective with the 2014/15 school year, Mississippi adopted new academic standards and courses aligned to these new standards. The new courses included both a subject-specific mathematics sequence (that is, algebra I, geometry, and algebra II) as well as an integrated mathematics sequence (that is, integrated I, integrated II, and…

This article explores how college expectations in 8th grade change by 10th grade, and if students realize the expectations for a given level of college from 8th and 10th grade, in light of the "college for all" ethos. This study is based on administrative data from 235,875 public school students in Massachusetts from 2006 to 2016. Using…

In the United States today, more jobs than ever before require at least some postsecondary education. Yet too many young adults are either not enrolling or not succeeding in college. This scenario exists across many different types of communities, but schools in rural areas, particularly those with large populations of low-income students, face…

Schools use an array of strategies to match curricula and instruction to students' heterogeneous skills. Although generations of scholars have debated ''tracking'' and its consequences, the literature fails to account for diversity of school-level sorting practices. In this article, we draw on the work of Sørensen and others to articulate and…

This study tested the theory that an authoritative school climate characterized by disciplinary structure and student support is conducive to positive academic outcomes for middle and high school students. Multilevel multivariate modeling at student and school levels was conducted using school surveys completed by statewide samples of 39,364…

Substance use is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality; it is in large part why, among 17 high-income nations, people in the U.S. have the highest probability of dying by age 50. Substance use is also an important contributor to many social ills including child and spousal abuse, violence more generally, theft, suicide, and more;…

The present volume presents new 2019 findings from the U.S. national Monitoring the Future (MTF) follow-up study concerning substance use among the nation's college students and adults from ages 19 through 60. This report includes 2019 prevalence estimates on numerous illicit and licit substances, examines how substance use differs across this age…

"Green Dot Public Schools" is a nonprofit organization that operates more than 20 public charter middle and high schools in California, Tennessee, and Washington. The "Green Dot Public Schools" model emphasizes high quality teaching, strong school leadership, a curriculum that prepares students for college, and partnerships…

The United States is in the midst of an effort to intensify middle school mathematics curricula by enrolling more 8th graders in Algebra. California is at the forefront of this effort, and in 2008, the state moved to make Algebra the accountability benchmark test for 8th-grade mathematics. This article takes advantage of this unevenly implemented…

In this investigation, the authors used Texas statewide data to determine the extent to which inequities were present in the assignment of disciplinary consequences for Black girls. Specifically examined were the assignment of in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, and disciplinary alternative education program placement to all Black,…

Substance use is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality; it is in large part why, among 17 high-income nations, people in the U.S. have the highest probability of dying by age 50. Substance use is also an important contributor to many social ills including child and spousal abuse, violence more generally, theft, suicide, and more;…

This study examined the effect of public school choice on adult crime and school-based outcomes. Prior to the 2002-03 school year, the Charlotte-Mecklenberg school district switched from forced desegregation to a district-wide open enrollment lottery. This study focuses on more than 2,000 male students in grades 6-11 who participated in the subset…