THE STUDY TESTED THE FOLLOWING HYPOTHESES--(1) IN THE PERIOD IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING EXPOSURE TO A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF TELEVISED MATERIAL, STUDENTS EXPERIENCE A REDUCED CAPACITY FOR CONSTRUCTIVE MENTAL WORK, (2) HIGH SUSPENSE MATERIALS PRODUCE A MORE MARKED SHORT-TERM EFFECT ON MENTAL ACTIVITY THAN DO STANDARD EDUCATIONAL FILM MATERIALS, AND (3)…

America's advantage has historically been its people's creativity, flexibility and entrepreneurship. But just as painters need to be proficient in technique and theory to produce great masterpieces, the next generation of Americans will likely require a solid grounding in mathematics and science for their creativity to be maximized in a world…

This report presents findings from a study conducted by The George Washington University Center for Equity and Excellence in Education (GW-CEEE) under the sponsorship of the National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES). The purpose of the study is to describe and analyze school-based decision-making practices relevant to the inclusion and…

Many students with disabilities entering the 9th grade express concern about getting lost in the larger high school environment, being picked on by older students, and having more challenging academic classes. The transition from middle-to-high school process for students with disabilities at Westminster High School in suburban Los Angeles is a…

This report summarizes preliminary and exploratory research conducted by the Council of the Great City Schools and the American Institutes for Research on urban school systems participating in the Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The study is one of the first large-scale analyses…

In this study, the authors conducted a mixed analysis of student perceptions of their best high school teachers. The sample of 257 preservice teachers from a College of Education in California described their best high school teacher. From their descriptions, qualitative analysis through the method of constant comparison yielded eight themes:…

The Nation's Report Card[TM], the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), is a nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. NAEP is a sample-based survey assessment that provides periodic reports on student academic performance at the national and state levels.…

The Nation's Report Card [TM], the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), is a nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. For over three decades, assessments have been conducted periodically in reading, mathematics, science, writing, history, geography, and…

In this report we focus on the use of propensity score methodology in multisite studies of the effects of educational programs and practices in which both treatment and control conditions are enacted within each of the schools in a sample, and the assignment to treatment is not random. A key challenge in applying propensity score methodology in…

When California adopted its new mathematics standards at the turn of this century, state leaders raised the expectations for its K-12 students, including encouraging them to take Algebra I in 8th grade. This brief looks at how California's high school students are meeting the state's high academic standards in math. It focuses on access to and…

This article shares the results of a 3-year study of the use of threaded discussion groups within intact eighth-grade classrooms in a middle school in Southern California. Using mixed-methods data collection and analysis, it addresses questions about how technology may be used effectively to create engaged writers and how student access to…

Provides a brief chronology of events which took place in the development of the statewide eighth grade assessment of history/social science in California. Describes the content of the tests and lists the names of the individuals who served on the various development committees. (JDH)

In 2001, the U.S. Department of Education and the Ministry of Education in China entered into a bilateral partnership to develop a technology-driven approach to foreign language learning that integrated gaming, immersion, voice recognition, problem-based learning tasks, and other features that made it a significant research and development pilot…

In this paper, a data perturbation method for minimizing the possibility of disclosure of participants' identities on a survey is described in the context of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The method distinguishes itself from most approaches because of the presence of cognitive tasks. Hence, a data edit should have minimal…

"Twelve Together" is a one-year peer support and mentoring program for middle and early high school students that offers weekly after-school discussion groups led by trained volunteer adult facilitators. Each peer discussion group consists of about 12 participants, who are a mix of students at high risk of academic failure and others at…