While many policymakers see college credit attainment programs as potential cost savings, little research has examined the actual savings (if any) tied to taking college classes in high school. This Rapid Response brief helps fill the gap, investigating and comparing the costs of providing college credit in high school in three states with the…

The National Math + Science Initiative (NMSI) is a nonprofit organization committed to improving educational outcomes that traces its roots back to the early 1990s. NMSI's College Readiness Program (CRP) is a long-standing program with the goal of promoting STEM education in high schools to improve students' preparation for college. The three-year…

The question of how to best design an online course that promotes student-centred learning is an area of ongoing research. This mixed-methods study focused on a section of advanced high school students, in college-level mathematics courses, that used a synchronous online environment mediated over web-conferencing software, and whether the…

Earning college credit in high school matters to students and parents. Students who earn college credits by taking a college-level course while in high school are more likely to enter college and succeed. Through these experiences, students become familiar with college expectations, academic behaviors, and habits of mind; get a head start on…

Allowing high school students to fulfill a math or science high school graduation requirement via a computer science credit may encourage more student to pursue computer science coursework. This Education Trends report is an update to the original report released in April 2015 and explores state policies that allow or require districts to apply…

This study investigates the collaborative composing processes of a group of five high school seniors who constructed interpretations of each of the five acts of Shakespeare's Hamlet through the medium of spoken word performances. The group composing processes were analyzed to identify how the students drew on conventions from the spoken word…

The purpose of this study is to determine the causes for high school students' decisions not to enroll in Honors or Advanced Placement (AP) courses. This study is a transcendental phenomenology whose participants are students who have been determined to be potentially successful in Advanced Placement classes by the "AP Potential"…

The Office of English Language Acquisition (OELA) has synthesized key data on English learners (ELs) into two-page PDF sheets, by topic, with graphics, plus key contacts. This document presents highlights relating to English learners and college and career readiness covering school-year (SY) 2011-2012. The topics for this report include: (1)…

The problem is that some secondary schools use the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program to service gifted students even though it was not developed as a gifted model. The purpose of the study is to determine if gifted identified students benefit more or less academically than students not identified as gifted as a result of their…

As record numbers of students are applying to selective colleges and universities, students are attempting to set themselves apart from their peers by taking rigorous advanced courses in high school. The race for improving a student's academic record has resulted in more and more students taking these courses earlier and earlier in their high…

Students at all levels often generate ideas that are not obviously right or wrong, and, when they do, it is productive to take time to explore the ideas as a group. Some of these ideas are really strange. Occasionally, they are so strange that even the teacher might not know what to think of them. This is the story of what Cosby's rule is, how it…

This report provides educators and policymakers with information they can use to celebrate their successes, understand their unique challenges, and set meaningful goals to increase opportunity for all students. It is important to note that while AP® Exams are valid measures of students' content mastery of college-level studies in specific academic…

"Looking Closer" is the eighth biennial report to SREB states on their progress in meeting SREB's Challenge to Lead goals for education. Each customized state report documents progress on both measurable outcomes and state policies. Through effective policy implementation, the goals can help states drive improvements in student…

This study investigated AP U.S. History teacher characteristics, school and classroom context, instructional and assessment practices, and the relationship of all these variables with student achievement on the AP U.S. History Exam. The study sample consisted AP U.S. History teachers in the state of Georgia (N = 93) representing 14 of the state's…

If a school improvement plan includes input from all stakeholders and focuses on data-driven processes that are linked to teacher appraisal, it can be powerful in leading the school toward the common mission of achieving student success. Linking the school improvement plan to the teacher appraisal process creates a system whereby all individuals…