Six years after passage of No Child Left Behind and midway to the nation's goal of having students on grade level or better in reading and math by 2014, more data than ever before has been collected about the academic performance of American students and schools. Information in this brochure charts student demographics, achievement-to-date and…

The most recent Phi Delta Kappa/Gallup Poll of the Public's Attitudes Toward the Public Schools found that 74% of Americans believe that the achievement gap between white students and African American and Hispanic students is primarily due to factors unrelated to the quality of schooling that children receive. This assumption is supported by…

From President Bush on down, the pressure is on to fix America's high schools. Despite a broad consensus that something is seriously wrong with the institution, deep fault lines remain about the remedies. Part of the reluctance to address high schools has been their complexity. The sheer size, departmental structure, mission creep, and other…

Americans know that Black and Latino children, by and large, are not reaching their full potential when it comes to learning and academic performance. But there are exceptions. The question that's being increasingly asked is how and why exceptions can become the norm. In the half century since the Brown v. Board decision, there remains a wide…

State and federal accountability reforms are putting considerable pressure on schools to increase the achievement of historically low-performing groups of students and to close test score gaps. In this article, we exploit the differences among the large number of elementary schools in New York City to examine how much schools vary in the…

Almost half of Latino students in higher education are enrolled at Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs). While there is documentation of Latino participation in higher education, there is little research focused on Latino student success. One approach to study Latino student success is to focus on these institutions. This Brief describes the…

This article discusses how a lifetime of research has led Edmund W. Gordon to the conviction that it is the out-of-school extras that nurture children's intellect. A half-century ago, the noted psychologist Edmund W. Gordon and his physician wife, Susan, opened a children's health clinic here in central Harlem. For as little as a quarter, poor…

This report presents trial school-district-level results of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematics 2003, 2005, and 2007 assessments at grades 4 and 8 for 10 urban public-school districts: Atlanta City School District; Austin Independent School District (ISD); Boston School District; Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools; City…

This issue of EPP Monitor contains the following articles: "Countdown for Justice," Five Quick and Inexpensive Ways to End Overcrowding," "Third Grade Retention -- Deja Vu All Over Again," High-Need African-American and Latino Students Doing Better in Suburban Districts," "An Emerging Consensus on Facts, not…

This year the Center on Education Policy (CEP) analyzed data on the achievement of different groups of students in two distinct ways. First, it looked at grade 4 test results to determine whether the performance of various groups improved at three achievement levels--basic and above, proficient and above, and advanced. Second, it looked at gaps…

In 2003-04 representatives from six baccalaureate-granting Hispanic-Serving Institutions in three state public university systems participated in a project entitled, "Latino Student Success at Hispanic-Serving Institutions." These institutions include two from California State University--(Los Angeles and Dominguez Hills), two from City…

This Opportunity 08 position paper advises that the next President of the United States should focus on lifting the achievement levels of our nation's schoolchildren. It recommends that the new President should mount a determined effort, together with states and local school districts, to boost the academic performance of low achievers by: (1)…

This report presents the progress toward school completion of New York City students who entered ninth grade in fall 1996 and were scheduled to graduate on time by summer 2000 after 4 years of high school. It presents outcomes for the class overall and specific groups of students categorized by gender, native language, race/ethnicity, and…

In this article, the author describes how Math/Science Institute (M/SI) in New York City prepares minority students to take the rigorous entrance exam for the city's three specialized science high schools: Stuyvesant, Bronx Science, and Brooklyn Technical. M/SI was created in 1995 by Ramon Cortines, who was then chancellor of New York City's…

This chapter presents an overview of the demographic shifts occurring in the United States and discusses the associated rapid increase in the number of community college students from diverse racial backgrounds. Profiles of two community colleges offer examples of timely responses to emerging majority students' academic, economic, and social…