For years, colleges have used placement exams to determine whether to deem incoming students "college ready" or assign them to developmental education. But emerging information reveals the tests have little correlation to students' future success, casting doubt on their use even as the high stakes for students of taking remedial courses…

The Florida College and Career Readiness Initiative is a statewide policy that mandates college placement testing of 11th-graders who meet high school graduation criteria but are unlikely to meet college readiness criteria. Students who score below college-ready on the Postsecondary Education Readiness Test (PERT) are required to take math and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of two learning contexts for explicit-reflective nature of science (NOS) instruction, socioscientific issues (SSI) driven and content driven, on student NOS conceptions. Four classes of 11th and 12th grade anatomy and physiology students participated. Two classes experienced a curricular…

Background: Cluster-randomized experiments that assign intact groups such as schools or school districts to treatment conditions are increasingly common in educational research. Such experiments are inherently multilevel designs whose sensitivity (statistical power and precision of estimates) depends on the variance decomposition across levels.…

The study compares faculty and school demographics in selected high school science classrooms to expand the research on women with careers in science. The classrooms are either situated in "high need Local Education Agencies" or the classrooms are situated in "low-performing schools," as categorized by the Florida Department of…

The District conducts a "cross-sectional" analysis of student dropouts annually; it examines dropout rates among students enrolled in various grades at one point in time. A "longitudinal" analysis, also conducted annually, tracks a group of students in the same grade or cohort over a period of several years. Each method…

The State of Florida launched the College and Career Readiness Initiative to improve student readiness for postsecondary education and promote success after high school graduation. During the 2008 legislative session, s. 1008.30 (3), F.S., (also known as Senate Bill (SB) "1908") was revised to provide an opportunity for postsecondary…

The District conducts a "cross-sectional" analysis of student dropouts annually; it examines dropout rates among students enrolled in various grades at one point in time. A "longitudinal" analysis, also conducted annually, tracks a group of students in the same grade or cohort over a period of several years. Each method…

While college enrollment rates have increased over the last 40 years, gaps still exist across groups. College enrollment rates are lower for high school graduates whose parents have not attended college, those with low-incomes, as well as Black and Latino/a students than for other high school graduates. One source of differences across groups in…

The District conducts a "cross-sectional" analysis of student dropouts annually; it examines dropout rates among students enrolled in various grades at one point in time. A "longitudinal" analysis, also conducted annually, tracks a group of students in the same grade or cohort over a period of several years. Each method…

IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND FACTORS LEADING TO COMPETENT ECONOMIC KNOWLEDGE OF 11TH-GRADE STUDENTS, A STUDY WAS INITIATED WHICH TRIED (1) TO SHOW GAIN OR LOSS OF ECONOMIC UNDERSTANDING IN THE 11TH-GRADE U.S. HISTORY COURSE, (2) TO ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN NUMBER OF RELATED STUDENT COURSES TAKEN AND ECONOMIC LITERACY ACHIEVED, AND (3) TO…

This research focused on verifying the impacts of Inclusion on both students with disabilities (SWDs) and their Regular Ed classmates. High school students (n = 364) within inclusive classes completed surveys reflecting their perceptions of the effectiveness of the learning environment and the attitudinal impacts of Inclusion. Results documented…

A pilot writing program was tested on 15 Florida eleventh graders, who had been placed in basic level classes and who believed themselves to be poor writers. After interviews with teachers and students, three practicum objectives were developed: (1) after 12 weeks, 80% of the target group will score a minimum of 3 on short composition assignments;…

This curriculum guide presents a sociology course for 11th and 12th grade Seminole County (Florida) students. Seven units are covered in the course: (1) society and culture; (2) social structure; (3) social institutions; (4) socialization; (5) continuity and change; (6) social problems; and (7) the research process. For each unit both county and…

This guide from the Seminole County School Board (Florida) outlines the curriculum for a psychology course offered to 11th and 12th grade students. Five units are covered in the course: (1) introduction; (2) the workings of the mind and body; (3) human development; (4) psychological theories; and (5) human relations. For each unit both county and…