Low involvement of African American parents in middle school education is a concern in a school district in the southeastern United States. The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate the relationships between the explanatory variables of parental involvement, socioeconomic status, and level of education, and the achievement of…

Since 1973, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has gathered information about student achievement in mathematics. Results of these periodic assessments, produced in print and web-based formats, provide valuable information to a wide variety of audiences. They inform citizens about the nature of students' comprehension of the…

This article presents findings from a large-scale curriculum development, quasi-experimental study. Participating teachers implemented four U.S. history units in their diverse middle-grade classes; these units were developed to engage underachieving students in challenging history and democratic citizenship curriculum and instruction featuring…

The dramatic growth and dispersal of immigrant families has changed the face of public education at a time when states are experiencing increased school accountability pressures under the No Child Left Behind Act and its recent successor, the Every Student Succeeds Act. Of particular concern is how these demographic shifts affect the academic…

Known as "the Nation's Report Card," the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is the U. S. Government assessment used since the late 1960s to measure student achievement in many subject areas, including mathematics, reading, science, and United States history. Different subject areas are assessed each year, and data have…

Arizona has grown rapidly over the years and our education system has grown in step with the population. But increasing the total budget for education doesn't mean that we have directed more resources to each student. The numbers show that Arizona has one of the lowest per-pupil funding rates in the country. Parties of one faction or another argue…

To answer questions about how students' proficiencies are changing over time, educational researchers are looking for data sources that span many years. Clearly, for answering questions about student growth, a longitudinal study--in which a single sample is followed over many years--is preferable to repeated cross-sectional samples--in which a…

Using Hierarchical Linear Modelling (HLM), this study aimed to identify factors such as ESL/ELL/EAL status that would predict students' reading performance in an English language arts exam taken across Canada. Using data from the 2007 administration of the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) along with the accompanying surveys for students and…

This paper investigates the validity of a national, standards-based teacher evaluation programme by examining the relationship between teachers' evaluation results and their students' learning progress. We used census achievement data that assessed the same cohort of students at the end of 8th and 10th grade. We applied multilevel modelling and…

In schools the participation of students, parents and paraprofessionals is important because it increases ownership and improves performance. Here the focus is on students' and paraprofessionals' learning and a sense of community when leaders try to develop a professional learning community in a new school in Iceland. An action research project…

Race to the Top (RTT), one of the Obama administration's signature programs and one of the largest federal government investments in an education grant program, received $4.35 billion in funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Through three rounds of competition in 2010 and 2011, RTT awarded grants to states that…

Race to the Top (RTT), one of the Obama administration's signature programs and one of the largest federal government investments in an education grant program, received $4.35 billion in funding as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Through three rounds of competition in 2010 and 2011, RTT awarded grants to states that…

The purpose of this study was to address the extent to which adequacy litigation functions as a means for improving student achievement, particularly among low-income and minority students. The study extended theory established in prior studies, and took into account the idea that change takes several years to realize and that sufficient time to…

Drawing on national and state assessment datasets in reading and math, this study tested "external" versus "internal" standards-based education models. The goal was to understand whether and how student performance standards work in multilayered school systems under No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Under the…

This paper describes one of the first efforts by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to improve measurement at the lower end of the distribution, including measurement for students with disabilities (SD) and English language learners (ELLs). One way to improve measurement at the lower end is to introduce one or more…