The percentage of students who graduate from high school within four years in the United States has remained between 65 and 70% since the late 1960s. Despite various educational reforms, the number of students who are at-risk of dropping out of high school has remained constant, increasing in some years and decreasing in other years. Two…

The purpose of this action research project was to study the relationship between Historical Analysis and student performance on the California Standards Test (CSTs), both English Language Arts and History, as well as to study the relationship between Historical Analysis and Reading Comprehension. It was believed that Historical Analysis required…

The purpose of this report is to examine the extent to which participation in the Los Angeles Better Educated Students for Tomorrow (LA's BEST) afterschool program leads to positive achievement outcomes in math and English-language arts. A quasi-experimental design is utilized, and hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) is employed to examine the…

The following research utilized student performance data regarding the English Language Arts curriculum from a secondary, very low-performing school site located within the Los Angeles/Hollywood community, whereby the majority of the student population was socio-disadvantaged and served a preponderance of ESL/EL learners. For the purposes of…

The California Department of Education is in the process of revising the Career and Technical Education (CTE) Model Curriculum Standards. The Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) conducted an investigation of the draft version of the Health Sciences and Medical Technology Standards (Health Science). The purpose of the study is to…

African American students are underperforming in public education. Unfortunately, a lack of literacy achievement is at the forefront of this issue. Within the area of literacy, writing scores of African American children are plummeting across the nation on standardized assessments. The present study was designed to inform classroom practices about…

This study examined the Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) achievement trends between 2004 and 2006 of 58 California public elementary schools after exiting state monitoring and investigated practices for sustaining consistent achievement growth. Statistical methods were used to analyze statewide achievement trends…

Entrance age in kindergarten has been a controversial issue as the range from the youngest to the oldest student spans up to 24 months. This range leaves a heterogeneous gap for teachers who are already differentiating for their English Language Learners, struggling students, and high achieving students. This is compounded by the fact that the…

California's Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2010 established transitional kindergarten (TK), the first year of a two-year kindergarten program for students affected by the change in the birthdate cutoff for entry into kindergarten from December 2 to September 1. This fifth short report in a series highlighting findings from the Study of…

The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether students who enter high school in ninth grade and score proficient or advanced on their CST in English Language Arts remain proficient or advanced 2 years later in 11th grade. The effects of NCLB will be considered as a contributing factor to the difference in student scores. This study was…

No significant differences in beginning eighth-grade pretest compared to ending eighth-grade posttest California Achievement Test Normal Curve Equivalent Scores were found for youth at risk who completed a pre-eighth-grade summer academic enrichment program where comparisons for reading vocabulary t(19) = 0.46, p = 0.33 (one-tailed), d = 0.107,…

This article presents cases of three young people who represent the "New Mainstream" of the 21st-century classroom as they engaged in a year-long research and writing project. Focal students were classmates who represented the linguistic and cultural diversity of today's New Mainstream: a transnational Mexican-origin bilingual female, an…

"Harvard Education Letter" is published bimonthly at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. This issue of "Harvard Education Letter" contains the following articles: (1) Integrated Data Systems Link Schools and Communities: Researchers Combine School and Non-School Data to Inform Interventions and Policy (Patti Hartigan);…

This study examined the relations of age, preschool experience, and gender with children's school readiness levels at kindergarten entry. The sample included 5,512 children of predominantly Hispanic heritage and from families experiencing low socioeconomic circumstances. A series of between-subjects ANOVAs indicated that age…

The purpose of this study was to identify pedagogical and non-pedagogical factors that affect the academic achievement of English Learner (EL) students in the area of language arts at Dr. Albert Schweitzer Elementary School in Anaheim, California. The researcher conducted an exploratory multiple case study to develop a comprehensive, contextual…