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,…

Since the passage of The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, a superintendent's role has been redefined and more focus has been placed on student achievement. Research demonstrates that rural public schools are faced with an educational crisis. Rural districts are faced with an epidemic of declining enrollments/budgets, increased drop-out rates, low…

After-school programs for adolescents may be a way to promote positive youth development, and thus, it is important to understand what impact after-school programs can have on the educational achievement of high school students. Chicago's After School Matters (ASM) program offers an exceptional opportunity to study whether an after-school program…

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…