While research and policy debates center on residents moving out of public housing, many families still live in public housing around the country; it is important to consider how to improve their well-being. Approximately 1.2 million units of public housing provide housing for about 3 million tenants throughout the country. In New York City, there…

K-12 school practitioners and schools administrators need reliable results about the effects of instructional technology products as they strive to meet achievement compliance levels in politically accountable local and national contexts in the U.S. This study presents evidence regarding the effects of extensive engagement with computer-based…

In the United States, public housing developments are predominantly located in neighborhoods with low median incomes, high rates of poverty and disproportionately high concentrations of minorities. While research consistently shows that public housing developments are located in economically and socially disadvantaged neighborhoods, we know little…

Our nation's bleak economic situation has forced state governments to cut educational funding. While funds are decreasing, accountability for student achievement remains high. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) forces each state to create and implement an accountability system of rewards and sanctions based on standardized test scores. In…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's 2008-2009 school year student success initiative efforts to support students who are academically at risk in reading and math.

Immigration and migration to New York City (NYC) collectively create a dynamic population of students. In this brief the authors use a decade of detailed, longitudinal data on NYC's 1st-8th graders to explore both the "stock" of students enrolled and the "flow" of new entrants in each academic year. Together, these paint a…

This report shows how well educators across the United States have increased access to the types of rich academic experiences that prepare students for success in college. By combining national, state and AP (Advanced Placement) data, this report provides educators and policymakers with information they can use to celebrate their successes,…

The National Institute of School Leadership's (NISL's) Executive Development Program (EDP) was established to provide professional development to school leaders to drive their schools to high performance. The program emphasizes the role of principals as strategic thinkers, instructional leaders, and creators of a just, fair, and caring culture in…

One of the ultimate goals of policy makers is to enable citizens to take advantage of a globalised world economy. This is leading them to focus on the improvement of education policies, ensuring the quality of service provision, a more equitable distribution of learning opportunities and stronger incentives for greater efficiency in schooling.…

AP Potential™ is a data-driven tool offered by the College Board that uses scores from the PSAT/NMSQT® to identify students who have the potential to succeed in Advanced Placement Program® (AP®) courses (College Board, 2007). Research showing a moderate-to-strong correlation between PSAT/NMSQT scores and AP Exam scores serves as the basis for this…

This report describes the results of two studies designed to evaluate the impact of self-reported mathematics course-taking on performance on SAT mathematics questions measuring new content (Algebra II). A supplemental table and figure are appended.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how photograph-based life science multiple-choice items influenced Louisiana science students' performance on statewide standardized tests, in comparison with text-based items about the same content. This mixed methodology research study focused primarily on types of multiple-choice items, specifically…

This paper extends the theory of conditional covariances to polytomous items. It has been proven that under some mild conditions, commonly assumed in the analysis of response data, the conditional covariance of two items, dichotomously or polytomously scored, given an appropriately chosen composite is positive if, and only if, the two items…

In England, the government has encouraged state secondary schools to be more diverse by becoming specialist. This paper reports estimates of the relative effectiveness of specialist schools for pupils' attainment in General Certificate of Secondary School examinations in 2001 compared to nonspecialist comprehensive schools, controlling for pupils'…

The No Child Left Behind Act is the most far-reaching attempt by the federal government to alter American public education in the last thirty years. Among other things, the act attempts to hold schools accountable by requiring that all teachers be highly qualified, that all students demonstrate proficiency in basic subject matter as measured by…