While prior research has examined relationships between grades and test scores (e.g., Brennan, Kim, Wenz-Gross & Siperstein, 2001; Ross & Kostuch, 2011), this study examined the influence of students' gender on the relationship between grades, what teacher "expected" students to score on end-of-grade or end-of-course (EOG/EOC)…

School districts across the United States have increasingly adopted information and communications technology (ICT) in an attempt to improve student achievement across a wide range of educational settings. This paper examines the impacts of Achieve3000, an early literacy program that differentiates non-fiction reading passages based on individual…

This paper examines the effect of a federally supported school turnaround program in North Carolina elementary and middle schools. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find that the turnaround program did not improve, and may have reduced, average school-level passing rates in math and reading. One potential contributor to that finding…

School districts are increasingly adopting technology-based resources in an attempt to improve student achievement. This paper reports the two-year results from randomized control trial of Achieve3000 in the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) in Raleigh, North Carolina. Achieve3000 is an early literacy program that differentiates non-fiction…

Research across the decades has confirmed that effective school leadership is associated with better outcomes for students and schools. A high-quality school leader affects dozens of teachers and hundreds or thousands of students. It is a pivotal role. From 2011 to 2016, The Wallace Foundation, through its Principal Pipeline Initiative (PPI),…

The effective use of assessments is a key component of school improvement. This mixed-method study analyzed the effect of Discovery Education interim assessments on student performance in seven low-performing schools in Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools over a two-year period. The third-grade reading End-of-Grade exam results of more than 1,000…

The purpose of this paper is to showcase new research that seeks to provide guidance on the heterogeneity of treatment effects by utilizing the variance of demographic differences in state assessments. This study is focused on a simple randomized block design where students are nested within schools, and within each school students are randomized…

Using administrative longitudinal data from five states, we study how value-added measures of teacher performance are affected by changes in state standards and assessments. We first document the stability of teachers' value-added rankings during transitions to new standard and assessment regimes and compare our findings to stability during stable…

This technical report is one of a series of four technical reports that describe the results of a study comparing eight alternative models for estimating school academic achievement using data from the Arizona, North Carolina, Oregon, and Pennsylvania accountability systems. The purpose of these reports was to evaluate a broad range of models…

Individual growth curves yield insights about growth that are not available from any other methodology; and developmental scales based on conjoint measurement models provide unique interpretive advantages for investigations of academic growth. The advantages are apparent when: (1) 15 consecutive statewide reading growth curves are annotated with…

"Achieve3000®" is a supplemental online literacy program that provides nonfiction reading content to students in grades preK-12 and focuses on building phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading comprehension, vocabulary, and writing skills. "Achieve3000®" is designed to help students advance their nonfiction reading skills…

Dyslexia is a neurologically-based, lifelong condition that affects a person's ability to process language, which in turn can make reading and writing more difficult. Between 10 and 20 percent of all people are dyslexic. Providing appropriate reading instruction and intervention for young children by second grade could reduce the percentage of…

The longitudinal relations between teacher-student relationship quality (TSRQ) and student achievement were examined to determine the directional associations between the quality of teacher-rated closeness and conflict with students, and measured math and reading achievement in a large, multisite sample of U.S. youth at first, third, and fifth…

In August 2010, the Smithsonian Science Education Center (SSEC) received a grant of more than $25 million from the U.S. Department of Education's Investing in Innovation (i3) program for a five-year study to validate its Leadership Assistance for Science Education Reform (LASER) model in three very diverse regions of the United States: rural North…

Although debate about the adoption and implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) has been extensive, there is unanimity on the importance of college and career readiness standards. If statewide assessments are not aligned to the workplace and college requirements of reading and comprehending more complex text, then states will keep…