When the Annie E. Casey Foundation published its first "KIDS COUNT Data Book" in 1990, there were 64 million children in America. Now, almost three decades later, there are close to 74 million. This 30th edition of the "Data Book" examines how America's child population has changed, demographically and geographically. The…

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;…

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 spouse abuse, violence more generally, theft, suicide, and more;…

The present volume presents new 2017 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 55. The authors report 2017 prevalence estimates on numerous illicit and licit substances, examine how substance use differs across this age…

The State Compensatory Education (SCE) program is designed to reduce dropout rates and increase academic performance of students identified as being at-risk of dropping out of school. SCE operates as a funding source to supplement instructional services and offer academic support to students who meet the SCE at-risk criteria established by the…

While educators and policy makers have an intuitive understanding of the influence of socioeconomic factors and race on student achievement, these factors make the current emphasis on standardized test scores as a primary criterion for evaluating schools and teachers indefensible and ineffective. The research presented illustrates the limits of…

Most research on the middle school transition focuses on developmental and psychological changes around the age of the transition, and investigates or discusses the impact of such changes on academic performance, motivation and behavior in schools. In addition to intrapersonal developmental changes that middle-school students experience, they also…

Although bullying is a widely recognized problem among school-aged youth, current research has failed to adequately consider whether ethnicity impacts students' involvement in, and perceptions of, bullying behaviors. This study employed a mixed methodology to examine how an ethnically diverse sample of students in seventh and eighth grade…

Black students are issued school discipline sanctions at rates higher than members of other racial and ethnic groups, underscoring the need for professional development that addresses this gap. In 86 secondary school classrooms, a randomized controlled trial examined the effects of a 2-year teacher-coaching program, My Teaching Partner Secondary…

Students' frequent exposure to inquiry-based science teaching is presumed more effective than their exposure to traditional didactic instruction in helping improve competence in content knowledge and problem solving. Framed through theoretical perspectives of inquiry-based instruction and culturally relevant pedagogy, this study examines this…

The 2015 AASA Superintendents Salary & Benefits Study marks the fourth edition of this study. This survey tracks the demographics, salary, benefits and other elements of the employment contracts of school superintendents throughout the country. This year's study is based on 728 responses, a 5.6 percent return rate. This is lower than previous…

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in students' relational engagement across the transition to high school in three schools reformed to improve the quality of student-teacher relationships. In order to analyze this data we employed latent growth curve (LGC) modeling techniques (n = 637). We ran three LGC models on three…

The authors examined science achievement growth at Grades 3, 5, and 8 and parent school involvement at the same time points using the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Class of 1998-1999. Data were analyzed using cross-classified multilevel latent growth curve modeling with time invariant and varying covariates. School-based…

Considering that achievement gaps have become a serious educational problem worldwide, the Ministry of Education in Taiwan has been addressing a series of policies to reduce achievement gaps, but the effect of these policies has not yet been carefully examined. Therefore, the present study investigated current educational policies, achievement gap…

In the light of the poor academic achievement in science by secondary school students in South Africa, students' motivation for science learning should be enhanced. It is argued that this can only be achieved with insight into which motivational factors to target, with due consideration of the diversity in schools. The study therefore explored the…