This dissertation evaluated the implementation of professional learning communities in a large suburban school district in North Carolina. The presence of shared and supportive leadership, shared values and vision, collective learning and application, shared personal practice, supportive conditions for relationships, and supportive conditions for…

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the basic concepts related to the unit of "Chemical Reactions and Energy" and the sub-concepts underlying for meaningful learning of the unit and to investigate the effectiveness of them on students' learning achievements. For this purpose, the basic concepts of the unit…

States and school districts are searching for strategies to raise the college and career readiness of high school graduates--imperative in an era when postsecondary credentials are the key to good jobs, better pay, and stronger economies. The creation and implementation of higher graduation standards aligned to college and career expectations is…

Building on findings from existing qualitative research into public perceptions of reliability in examination results in England, a questionnaire was developed and administered to samples of teachers, students and employers to study their awareness of and opinions about various aspects of reliability quantitatively. Main findings from the study…

In this article we report on the effects of a digital intervention on the development of algebraic expertise of 17-18 year old students in the Netherlands. The question to be answered was whether the intervention would be effective and what factors influenced the outcome. With notions of formative assessment and symbol sense as guiding theoretical…

The purpose of this study was to examine postsecondary readiness for 17,499 Colorado students by exploring the congruence between middle school and high school state assessment results (Colorado State Assessment Program) from 2007, ACT results from 2008 and the need for remediation for Colorado students who graduated from high school in the spring…

The Mathematics Diagnostic Testing Project (MDTP) offers course-specific assessments that provide teachers with timely feedback on their students' strengths and weaknesses in mathematics, often returning feedback to teachers on individual students and the entire class within a week of testing. In this way, teachers can quickly act on what they…

This article investigates several questions regarding the impact of different item formats on measurement characteristics. Constructed response (CR) items and multiple choice (MC) items obviously differ in their formats and in the resources needed to score them. As such, they have been the subject of considerable discussion regarding the impact of…

Little is known about the impact of staff development programs on student reading comprehension performance. This study examined the impact of staff supported through "Reading Next"'s Project C.R.I.S.S. on middle and high school student remedial reading performance in one Southwestern U.S. school district from 2005 to 2010. This…

From a critical psychology perspective, Prilleltensky and Nelson advocate for research that has explicit focus on social change and can allow for full participation and empowerment of those under study. The current article describes the collaborative development, implementation, and evaluation of a career education program within three ethnically…

This study examined the academic performance of Tech Prep students (referred to as participants) in comparison to non-Tech Prep students (referred to as non-participants) entering a two-year community college from sixteen different high schools in Stark County, Ohio. This study provided a quantitative analysis of students' academic experiences to…

This study was designed to examine the effectiveness of a ninth grade transition program at a suburban high school in Louisiana. Student data were analyzed from two groups of first time freshmen who indicated a need for help in mathematics: one without a transition program and one with a transition program. Academic data included standardized test…

Reform efforts in response to the inclusion of students with disabilities into general education classrooms have become necessary to shift students' placements into the science classroom. An investigation into the effects of co-teaching in high school biology classrooms was conducted to explore the impact of two models of co-teaching on biology…

Nations other than the U.S. elicit better performance from their students through the use of high-stakes graduation exams. Along these same lines, Michigan now links college scholarships to high school test results. Michigan has rejected the use of minimum-competency exams, largely because it wanted the state's high-school test to reflect more…