This study empirically tested 3 mechanisms commonly suggested to disadvantage youths whose mothers are incarcerated in prison. An event history analysis of school dropout was conducted on a sample of 6,008 adolescents in a large city created by merging several Illinois state administrative data. Findings revealed that adolescents are indeed at…

This article explores the sociopolitical context of education policy, particularly as it relates to Latina/o education. The authors highlight the status of Latinas/os within the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) to examine the impact of education policy designed to benefit few and disenfranchise most. They draw attention to the injustices of Latinas/os…

Most studies focus on the effects of charter attendance on short-term student achievement (test scores), using either data sets that follow students over time or random assignment via school admission lotteries to control for differences between students in charter and traditional public schools. Beyond measuring achievement effects, however,…

This article draws on research from Texas and Chicago to examine whether highstakes testing enables low-income and racial minority students to acquire cultural capital. While students' performance on state or district tests rose after the implementation of high-stakes testing and accountability policies in Texas and Chicago in the 1990s, several…

This study examines 4 years of small school reform in Chicago, focusing on schools formed by converting large traditional high schools into small autonomous ones. Analyzing systemwide survey and outcome data, the authors assess the assumptions embedded in the reform's theory of change. They find that these schools are characterized by more…

This study examines whether participating in competitive policy debate influences high school completion, academic achievement, and college readiness for African American male students. The analysis examines data from the Chicago Debate League from 1997 to 2006. Debate participants were 70% more likely to graduate and three times less likely to…

Open online courses (OOC) with a massive number of students have represented an important development for online education in the past years. A course on artificial intelligence, CS221, at the University of Stanford was offered in the fall of 2011 free and online which attracted 160,000 registered students. It was one of three offered as an…

Workload has been found to be a major course-related factor that affects student dropout rates. A heavy workload combined with a lack of time can create problems for students with courses that, by their very nature, require extensive work outside of class time. One such course is the second-semester programming course at Illinois State University…

High school principals and career and technical education (CTE) teachers throughout Illinois were subjects of this study which described principals' and CTE teachers' perceptions of the impact the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has had on high school CTE programs. Findings indicated principals and teachers collectively disagreed with "No…

Across the country, grade promotion is tied increasingly to performance on standardized tests. One concern about such policies is that they might increase dropout rates. Policy proponents counter that adverse effects of grade retention should be more than offset by beneficial effects from rising achievement. Using data from Chicago, this study…

Chicago, like many cities, suffers from a significant drop-out problem in its public high schools. The Chicago Public School system (CPS) committed itself in 2001 to utilize small schools--intimate learning environments of no more than 300 students built on communication, collaboration and meeting the needs of the community they serve--as a…

Examines effects of local taxes and schooling on private nonfarm employment growth in Illinois since 1980, assessing educational outcomes determinants (ACT scores, school attendance, and dropout rates). Jobs are negatively affected by property taxes, positively affected by ACT scores, and unaffected by expenditures per pupil. Family background…