This individual profile provides information on Alaska's college and career readiness assessment policy. Some of the categories presented include: (1) CCR assessment policy; (2) Purpose; (3) Major changes in CCR assessment policy since the 2009-10 school year for financial reasons; (4) State financial support for students to take the CCR…

The adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards and Smarter Balanced assessments in mathematics are intended to provide all students in California with the knowledge and skills required to transition from high school to college-level coursework. This implementation will take time. Concurrent with these efforts, policymakers and…

This report presents a methodology for the creation of a PSAT/NMSQT test score benchmark to identify students who are on track toward college readiness when completing high school. The proposed benchmark could create useful early indicators of whether students in grades 10 and 11 are on track to be college ready upon high school graduation. Two…

A usability study was conducted by the Research and Innovation Network and Assessment Solutions Design to assess the usability of a drawing response interaction type. The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) commissioned a multi-part study to determine the viability of using the drawing response interaction on…

The "Seventh Annual Report Card" provides the most up-to-date information available on Boston's education pipeline, from kindergarten through college graduation, including measures for school readiness, 3rd-grade reading proficiency, 6th-grade mathematics proficiency, 10th-grade academic proficiency, high school completion, dropout…

Educators and policymakers have set a goal that all students graduate from high school ready for college and careers. A substantial body of research supports the idea that the path to college and career readiness begins well before middle and high school. In an earlier policy report, ACT examined the percentage of academically far off track…

This study assessed the relationship of an Arts Summer Learning Program (Arts Program) to student academic performance and college readiness. A North Texas school district collaborated with a research-based Arts Program in 2010, and a new approach was implemented in the summer school program for low-performing students who had failed courses in…

Development of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), and the creation of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC), changes the pattern of accountability testing. These changes raise the question: "How should NAEP's validity and utility be…

Newport News is a city of 193,000 people, located between Williamsburg and Norfolk in Southeastern Virginia. Newport News Public Schools (NNPS) educates approximately 30,500 children, grades Pre-K to 12, of whom 55.7% are Black, 29% are White, 9.9% are Hispanic, 2.9% are Asian, and 2.5% are other races. Newport News Public Schools' (NNPS') Special…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2012-13 and 2013-14 school years. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, atrisk, English language learner, immigrant, and migrant…

Robotics competitions for K-12 students are popular, but are students really learning and improving their STEM scores through robotics competitions? If not, why not? If they are, how much more effective is learning through competitions than traditional classes? Is there room for improvement? What is the best robotics competition model to maximize…

Students entering high school in 9th grade face a formidable challenge. The transition to high school from 8th grade brings with it increased risks for all students. For example, students in 9th grade are anywhere from three to five times more likely to fail a class than students in any other grade. Similarly, ninth grade retention rates are…

This "Sixth Annual Report Card" reflects the progress that is being made throughout Boston's entire education pipeline. More than 77,000 school-age children live in the City of Boston. The vast majority, 93%, attend a school in the Boston Public Schools system, a Boston Charter public school, or a Boston Catholic school. The goal with…

The College Board College Readiness Pathway is an assessment system that measures the reading, writing and mathematical knowledge and skills that students need to be on track to graduate high school college-ready. It consists of ReadiStep[TM], administered in grade eight; the PSAT/NMSQT[R], administered in grades 10-11; and the SAT[R],…

This research study examined the impact of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program on students' self-efficacy and academic achievement outcome measures at the middle and high school level. AVID is a college readiness system designed to prepare at-risk students in the fourth through 12th grade for college. The main focus of this…