The ambitious goal set by Colorado's governor to address the state's dropout problem is a model for the nation. Helping thousands of young people to receive their high school diplomas instead of leaving school without them is a crucial step in improving the quality of life for all Colorado residents. Accomplishing this goal will require focused…

The ambitious goal set by Colorado's governor to address the state's dropout problem is a model for the nation. Helping thousands of young people to receive their high school diplomas instead of leaving school without them is a crucial step in improving the quality of life for all Colorado residents. Accomplishing this goal will require focused…

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the component reading skills of adolescent struggling readers attending urban high schools. Specifically, 11 measures of reading skills were administered to 345 adolescent readers to gain a research-based perspective on the reading skill profile of this population. Participants were assessed in…

The School Climate Bullying Survey (Cornell & Sheras, 2003) is a self-report survey used to measure attitudes and behaviors associated with school bullying. Two studies were conducted to examine the valid use of its three school climate scales: (a) Prevalence of Teasing and Bullying, (b) Aggressive Attitudes, and (c) Willingness to Seek Help.…

This paper identifies the ways in which the Productive Pedagogies framework has been refined as a research tool for evaluating classroom practice within a current study into issues of school reform in Queensland. Initially emerging from the landmark Queensland School Reform Longitudinal Study (1998-2001), the Productive Pedagogies has been taken…

A popular humorist and avowed mathphobe once declared that in real life, there's no such thing as algebra. Kathie Wilson knows better. Most of the students in her 8th grade class will be thrust into algebra, the definitive course that heralds the beginning of high school mathematics, next school year. The problem: Many of them are about three…

This curriculum was developed in response to a need expressed by parents and parent groups across the country. It is intended to help parents learn strategies that will encourage their youth to remain in school and to graduate with peers. In preparation for presenting this workshop, you will need to have a clear understanding of state initiatives…

This report paints a collective portrait of the Baltimore City Schools dropouts of 2008-09 to summarize some of the commonalities that join their individual stories together. After examining the surface level demographic characteristics of these dropouts, researchers probed more deeply into their behavioral characteristics in the years preceding…

Teens are impatient and unsophisticated online researchers who are often limited by their poor reading skills. Because they are attracted to clean and simple Web interfaces, they often turn to Google--and now Wikipedia--to help meet their research needs. The Google Game, co-authored by this author, teaches kids that there is a well-thought-out…

This "Third Annual Report Card" looks at improvements in the cradle-to-career educational pipeline, the areas where Boston has made modest progress but still has a great deal of work to do, and the places where observers have failed to see the gains that are needed to ensure that Boston is a city of opportunity for all. This report card…

This study assessed the effects of a modified version of Check & Connect, a comprehensive student engagement intervention, on the attendance, behavior, and academic performance of secondary African American females with violent and aggressive behavior problems. In addition, the Student Engagement Instrument (SEI) was used to assess cognitive…

This best practices piece is based on key research into high school transition strategies. It draws on two studies of high school reform models conducted by MDRC, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research organization, which shed light on promising strategies to support ninth-grade students. Increasing the capacity of high schools to provide extra help…

The annual event dropout rate describes the proportion of students who leave school each year without completing a high school program. The event dropout rates for the school year 2006-2007 of 2.18% for grades 7 through 12th and 3.08% for grades 9 through 12th are consistent with the dropout rates for the past four years. The event completion rate…

The annual event dropout rate describes the proportion of students who leave school each year without completing a high school program. The event dropout rates for the school year 2007-2008 of 2.30% for grades 7 through 12th and 3.25% for grades 9 through 12th are consistent with the dropout rates for the past four years. The event completion rate…

The transition to high school has been identified as a potentially difficult time in adolescents' lives. Reductions in both academic and social functioning often accompany this transition. While these effects have been documented in urban youth, the move to high school has not been extensively studied in rural minority youth. Toward that end, the…