This applied dissertation was designed to provide the effectiveness of promoting change management through historical findings of closing reading comprehension (i.e., vocabulary) achievement gaps with black and white 9th and 10th grade students in a private school and 66 participants in this study. Achievement gaps in education refers to the…

Achieve3000®, a web-based differentiated reading program based on the Lexile® Framework and designed to improve student reading ability and comprehension of increasingly complex texts, was made available to approximately 100,000 secondary students across 98 HISD schools during the 2017-2018 academic year. The present evaluation, using a select…

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 longitudinal education studies, assuming that dropout and missing data occur completely at random is often unrealistic. When the probability of dropout depends on covariates and observed responses (called "missing at random" [MAR]), or on values of responses that are missing (called "informative" or "not missing at random" [NMAR]),…

Racial inequality in education is a serious problem in the United States. The latest government attempt to address this problem was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). This study used the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002) to examine the relationship between race and composite reading and math scores among Black and White…

Schools and communities across Montana are working hard to ensure that students receive the best education and graduate ready for college and careers. One of the most important components in this effort involves understanding where students are and how schools and communities can best help them achieve at the highest levels. Data is an invaluable…

Last year, Hispanic and African American high school graduates met ACT's College Readiness Benchmarks in English, reading, mathematics, and science at substantially lower rates than did Asian and White graduates. For example, the rate of White graduates who were college ready in English (77%) was twice that of their African American peers (35%).…

Nationally, millions of students in grades 7-12 are at risk of dropping out of high school because of low literacy skills, poor attendance, and class failure. The absence of a college- and career-ready education for these students is a civil rights and social justice issue that the federal government cannot ignore. Unfortunately, many of these…

This article presents a study of ethnic Differential Item Functioning (DIF) for 4th-, 7th-, and 10th-grade reading items on a state criterion-referenced achievement test. The tests, administered 1997 to 2001, were composed of multiple-choice and constructed-response items. Item performance by focal groups (i.e., students from Asian/Pacific Island,…

The purpose of this report is to discuss the continuing difficulties school leaders and students face as they grapple with the "achievement gap" among students of different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Several years ago, researchers at the Washington School Research Center sought to evaluate the "unique contribution of low…

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,…