Despite national attention for academic success, data shows that students with disabilities in the Appoquinimink School District do not share in this success. The district boasts a large enrollment in AP courses and high scores in both the state standardized tests and AP exams. However, students with disabilities consistently perform well below…

Students with disabilities (SWD) lag behind their peers without disabilities at all grade levels in mathematics. This gap is more pronounced in Grade 8, with 65 percent of SWD performing below the basic performance level compared to 21 percent of their peers without disabilities (U.S. Department of Education, 2013). Identifying proven…

In school districts across the nation, diverse student groups, including English Learners and students with disabilities, have been experiencing significant gains in reading performance after using READ 180. This compendium of READ 180 research contains results of 40 studies conducted in a variety of settings, in school districts across the…

This brief report offers analysis of ACT and SAT results from 2008 to 2013 in the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) region. The brief focuses on the increase in test participation rates and points to policies that SREB states initiated that affected these rates. Five SREB states currently require 100 percent student participation on the…

This latest brief updates education leaders on the key policies the 13 (Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia) Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states plan to implement under federal waivers to No Child Left Behind. It details,…

In today's economy, employers increasingly demand that workers have a high school diploma, yet America's graduation rates are unacceptably low, particularly among poor and minority students. Nationally, only about 70 percent of students graduate from high school on time with a regular diploma; for African American and Hispanic students, this…

This paper profiles Delaware's test score trends through 2008-09. In 2006, the mean scale score on the state 4th grade reading test was 474 for non-Title I students and 464 for Title I students. In 2009, the mean scale score in 4th grade reading was 478 for non-Title I students and 467 for Title I students. Between 2006 and 2009, the mean scale…

In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Delaware students showed consistent gains in math at the basic, proficient, and advanced levels for racial/ethnic subgroups, low income students, and boys and girls. There were mixed results in reading. Achievement gaps narrowed in both reading and math in…

SREB states were among the first in the nation to implement statewide high school exams. Today, these exams are a key component of each state's accountability system. This report identifies which states use comprehensive exams and which use end-of-course exams, how students perform on them, and whether achievement gaps have narrowed. It also…

Over the last 10 to 15 years, a variety of efforts to transform American high schools have gained both public and private support. Significant among these are initiatives to implement Small Learning Communities (SLCs), part of a larger school reform and restructuring effort designed to address a variety of goals, including "downsizing large…

Policymakers and education leaders in Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) states have been working since 2002 to meet all 12 "Challenge to Lead" Goals for Education. At the same time, SREB states have had to struggle with the toughest economic challenges in decades. Even so, SREB states have succeeded in achieving many of the goals…

Although the myth of public education as the "great equalizer" is alive and well in the minds of many, the reality is that the notion of public schools as the savior of the less fortunate is fundamentally compromised when institutional decision making does more to suppress low-income and minority students through low expectations…

This year the Center on Education Policy (CEP) analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps…