In 2009, Florida adopted the Differentiated Accountability (DA) plan, making it among the first to specifically incorporate into its existing school grading scheme college readiness targets. In this paper we use a rich panel of data on high school students in Broward County (Ft. Lauderdale) Public Schools to present early evidence of the impact of…

Students are doing less hand-raising and more clicking as online classes become increasingly popular in K12 instruction, both in combination with brick-and-mortar classrooms and in independent full-time virtual schools. With online instruction comes a change in the nature of teaching, communicating with, and assessing students. As schools move to…

In this qualitative study, we investigated 15 successful and 15 struggling high school students' perceived stressors, coping strategies, and intrapersonal and environmental factors students perceive to influence their success in college-level courses. We found that students' primary sources of stress involved meeting numerous academic demands and…

Objective: In recent years, developmental education (DE) reform has led to a restructuring of the placement process, redesigning of course instructional modalities, or implementing student support services to supplement developmental coursework. In Florida, recent legislative changes allowed students to opt out of placement testing and enroll…

Successful coping with academic demands is important given the inverse relationship between stress and positive adjustment in adolescents. The Coping With Academic Demands Scale (CADS) is a new measure of coping appropriate for students pursuing advanced high school curricula, specifically Advanced Placement (AP) classes and the International…

Successful coping with academic demands is important given the inverse relationship between stress and positive adjustment in adolescents. The Coping with Academic Demands Scale (CADS) is a new measure of coping appropriate for students pursuing advanced high school curricula, specifically Advanced Placement (AP) classes and the International…

This study examines educators' perspectives on accountability mandates designed to expand access to the College Board's Advanced Placement (AP) classes to traditionally underserved students at a diverse suburban high school in Florida, Palm Crest High School. Consistent with Elmore (1979), district and site-based administrators focused on the…

This study sought to examine calculus students' mathematical performances and preferences for visual or analytic thinking regarding derivative and antiderivative tasks presented graphically. It extends previous studies by investigating factors mediating calculus students' mathematical performances and their preferred modes of thinking. Data were…

In this qualitative study, we investigated 15 successful and 15 struggling high school students, perceived stressors, coping strategies, and intrapersonal and environmental factors that students perceive to influence their success in college-level courses. We found that students' primary sources of stress involved meeting numerous academic demands…

There is ample discussion in academic and policy circles, as well as amongst the general public, about the ways in which classroom instructors can provide more engaging learning experiences for students. This research examines the ways in which students engage participating in classroom simulations as it pertains to the assigned learning outcomes…

In this study, we compare SpringBoard® (SB) schools that had continuously used the SB English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum for at least three years with comparable non-SB schools. For high schools, the outcomes examined were school-level AP® participation and performance for a) all AP subjects, b) ELA and social science AP subjects, and c) ELA…

Business leaders in Florida cannot find the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) talent they need to stay competitive. Students' lagging performance in K-12 is a critical reason why. The good news is that the nation's most effective STEM education programs can help turn the tide. Students in Florida have made some progress in…

This paper considers why the International Baccalaureate--a prestigious international education program--is currently being incorporated into magnet schools in the United States. Since the mid-1980s, when school choice policy took root the number of magnet schools climbed and a growing number of them incorporated the International Baccalaureate…

Florida has experienced some of the greatest growth of Advanced Placement (AP) programs in recent years and student scores on the AP exams have evolved into a highly significant metric in evaluating student proficiency and teacher and school effectiveness. Despite this growth, it is not well known how AP teachers make decisions about the content…

This study examines the relationship between high school efforts at post-secondary preparation for college bound students and the expectations of college and university admissions personnel. The Advanced Placement (AP) teachers and administrators at a rural Northwest Florida high school were administered a quantitative survey in order to collect…