While instructional time is viewed as crucial to learning, little is known about the effectiveness of reducing absences relative to increasing the number of school days. In this regard, this paper jointly estimates the effect of absences and length of the school calendar on test score performance. Using administrative data from North Carolina…

Research has shown that there is a strong link between reading comprehension and vocabulary, yet many children lack the required vocabulary needed to perform adequately on reading comprehension assessments. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the teaching of Larry Bell's 12 Powerful Words vocabulary program in order to raise third, fourth…

In 2013-14, Letterland had strong implementation, with moderate to high fidelity within approximately 90% of Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) K-1 classrooms. The impact of Letterland on students' reading achievement was neutral to positive. A significantly higher percentage of WCPSS kindergarten students were at or above benchmark mid-year…

The effect of electronic books on the reading comprehension of middle and high school students was examined using an experimental posttest-only control-group design. A convenience sample of 140 randomly assigned middle and high school English students at an independent school in eastern North Carolina participated. Half of the students used…

Objective: This study assessed the effects of unified family and drug treatment courts (DTCs) on the resolution of cases involving foster care children and the resulting effects on school performance. Method: The first analytic step was to assess the impacts of presence of unified and DTCs in North Carolina counties on time children spent in…

This research study explored the current state of teacher morale in fourth- and fifth-grade classrooms in three low socioeconomic schools. Additional research questions addressed correlational relationships among the variables of teacher morale, student engagement, and student achievement growth as measured by the North Carolina Teacher Working…

Many middle school students are not achieving the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) at individual schools in North Carolina. A consequence of continual failure to reach AYP goals is the withdrawal of Title 1 funding. Since federal funds are an integral part of nearly half of the public schools in North Carolina, it is imperative that students improve…

Created by the U.S. Congress in 2006, the Teacher Incentive Fund (TIF) represents the first federal initiative targeted directly at state and district efforts to introduce performance measures into educator compensation. TIF responds to a growing body of evidence that existing pay structures do not respond to labor force realities or adequately…

This dissertation utilized a mixed-methods, quasi-experimental design to investigate the impact of parent development on rising third graders' summer reading losses as measured by the difference in May and August oral reading fluency scores. Title I parents and students from three schools in a rural North Carolina school district participated in a…

This study examines the incentive effects of North Carolina's practice of awarding performance bonuses on test score achievement on the state tests. Bonuses were awarded based solely on whether a school exceeds a threshold on a continuous performance metric. The study uses a sharp regression discontinuity design, an approach with strong internal…

Academy of READING (AoR) is designed to improve students' foundational reading skills; it is used in almost all Wake County Public Schools (WCPSS) secondary schools. Central staff recommended students with prior End of Grade/Course (EOG/EOC) scale scores placing them high in Level II or low in Level III have first priority for service; many…

NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) results in mathematics and reading are based on representative samples of 1,100 to 2,300 public school students at grade 4 and 900 to 2,100 public school students at grade 8 in each participating urban district in 2013. Twenty-one urban districts participated in the 2013 assessments. The assessments…

The purpose of this study was to determine to what extent struggling readers in the middle school (Grades 6-8) respond to interventions implemented through the response to intervention (RtI) model after being identified as having deficits in reading comprehension and fluency. The study examined progress of struggling sixth-grade students…

Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems (QRISs) have advanced and matured, a number of states and localities have undertaken evaluations to validate the systems. Such efforts stem from the desire to ensure that the system is designed and operating in the ways envisioned when the system was established. Given that a central component in a QRIS…

A vertical scale, in principle, provides a common metric across tests with differing difficulties (e.g., spanning multiple grades) so that statements of "absolute" growth can be made. This paper compares 16 states' 2007-2008 effect size growth trends on vertically scaled reading and math assessments across grades 3 to 8. Two patterns…