The North Carolina High School Comprehensive Test (HSCT)--Reading and Mathematics is currently being utilized to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind legislation of 2001. No Child Left Behind requires that, by the 2005-06 school year, each state must measure every child's progress in reading and math in each of grades 3 through 8 and at…

Developed jointly by OECD member countries through the OECD's Directorate for Education, the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) aims to measure how far students approaching the end of compulsory education have acquired some of the knowledge and skills essential for full participation in the knowledge society. The assessment is…

This presentation is devoted to four main topics: (1) the comparative performance of U.S. adults and high school students on international literacy assessments; (2) the literacy/numeracy proficiencies of the nation's adults in different educational groups and among those who recently participated in federally-funded adult education programs; (3)…

With the growing federal, state, and local policy emphasis on teacher quality and student achievement, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory (SEDL) investigated teacher resources and their relationship to student achievement in Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. The purpose of this study was to provide policymakers with information about…

The biennial report to Congress on the implementation of the Title III state formula grant program provides a snapshot of the status of the U.S. Department of Education's efforts to hold states accountable for ensuring that all limited English proficient (LEP) students attain English language proficiency (ELP) and are achieving in the content…

Results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other large scale tests are often reported as rank ordered lists showing mean values for each of the 50 states. Using data from the 2003 State NAEP Assessment, this paper examines the standard errors associated with State NAEP scores and explains why the use of rank order…

In response to legislation passed by the 1989 North Carolina General Assembly, the State Board of Education developed and initially implemented End-of-Grade Tests (EOG) for grades 3 through 8 in the areas of reading and mathematics effective with the 1992?93 school year. These curriculum-based multiple-choice achievement tests are specifically…

The Council of the Great City Schools has prepared this fourth edition of "Beating the Odds" ("Beating the Odds IV") to give the nation another look at how inner-city schools are performing on the academic goals and standards set by the states for our children. This analysis examines student achievement in math and reading through spring 2003. It…

This study evaluated (1) whether essay placement (either at the beginning or at the end of the test battery) impacts test-takers' performance on the critical reading, mathematics, and writing multiple choice measures; and (2) whether essay prompt type (either a simple one-line prompt or a prompt including a short passage) affects test-takers'…

The teaching of reading has come to be regarded as one of the highest priority areas in modern education because schools have been failing to teach reading effectively to large numbers of students who progress to secondary school without having achieved a working competency in this basic skill. Much of the burden of reading instruction has fallen…

This publication is the 14th edition of the "Mini-Digest of Education Statistics," a pocket-sized compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from kindergarten through graduate school. The "Mini-Digest" is designed as an easy reference for materials found in much greater detail in the…

How can we help all children learn what they need to know to prepare for the future? In every country/region that is participating in the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a study of the literacy skills of 15-year-old youth, there is a huge gap between the best and worst performing students. This shows the need for…

The effect of block scheduling on high school student achievement in mathematics and reading was investigated in this study through the use of an ex post-facto, longitudinal research design. Specifically, student scores from 9th and 11th-grade standardized tests were matched and sorted by junior high and high school attended. Outcome measures…

New Hampshire is in the midst of a transition--a transition between assessment systems--a transition between accountability systems. The elementary grades were assessed with the newly developed New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) tests in October 2005. The high school (grade 10) will be assessed with New Hampshire's previous state-wide…

We examine the effects of family structures and processes on student achievement in Hong Kong. Specifically, we show that the negative effects of single parenthood in past studies are not universal. In Hong Kong, 4,405 15-year-old students completed a questionnaire, and tests in reading, mathematics and science. We analysed the data using…