This case illustrates the importance for school leaders and teachers to be knowledgeable about current legal precedent when creating district and school policies. We describe a legal battle that occurred in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in which a school district instituted a policy affecting English learners that was in violation of two federal laws.…

In 2018, the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) enacted a new law called Act 44, which provided new form of funding for school safety in school districts across the State of Pennsylvania. The study focused on how school superintendents and high school principals prioritized each category in Pennsylvania Act 44 from highest to the lowest…

Between 2011 and 2015, K-12 education experienced an infusion of funds by the U.S. Department of Education going directly to school districts that implemented reforms in key areas to address truancy, dropout and achievement in our nation's most severely underperforming schools. There is limited research studying truancy reduction, relationship…

Career and technical education (CTE) is faced with numerous forces that may impact its future. A variety of forces directly or indirectly affect CTE, ranging from the persisting stigma or negative image of career and technical education, the schools' curricular structure and requirements, along with federal laws such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB)…

Since the time of Sputnik, American educators and policymakers have recognized the need to raise expectations by increasing rigor in high schools across the United States. Copious studies attest to the fact that students who take Advanced Placement coursework experience success in college (Adelman, 1999; Camara, 2003; College Board, 2005;…

Teachers and administrators are faced with managing the behaviors of students while preparing for the high stakes testing associated with the No Child Left Behind Act. One program that has demonstrated positive results at the elementary and middle school level is the school-wide positive behavior support model (SWPBS). Limited research is…

In 2008, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) produced a series of papers documenting promising practices identified throughout the field of K-12 online learning. Since then, we have witnessed a tremendous acceleration of transformative policy and practice driving personalized learning in the K-12 education space. State,…

The primary purpose of this study was to explore how the No Child Left Behind Act has impacted the traditional responsibilities of high school counselors. Furthermore, if there have been changes in school counselor roles, how are school counselors managing the impact? The study findings also investigated school counselor professional development…

Dual enrollment is a federally funded program that offers high school students the opportunity to earn both high school and postsecondary credits for the same course. While the phenomenon of concurrent enrollment in postsecondary and college educational programs is not new, political support and public funding has drawn focus to the policies of…

As public school accountability for student achievement has continued to increase, prior to and as a result of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools have sought ways of bringing new instructional services to their students to raise their levels of achievement. Some Pennsylvania public high schools have attempted to improve student…

This paper profiles Pennsylvania's test score trends through 2008-09. In 2006, the mean scale score on the state 4th grade reading test was 1390 for non-Title I students and 1220 for Title I students. In 2009, the mean scale score in 4th grade reading was 1420 for non-Title I students and 1270 for Title I students. Between 2006 and 2009, the mean…

This dissertation investigates the prevailing No Child Left Behind (NCLB) mandate as an effective platform to improve schools. The data compiled for use in this study represented 426 high schools in Pennsylvania and were retrieved from publicly accessible, state-sponsored sources. The statistical methodologies from the Pennsylvania Value-Added…

Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation's public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. Since almost 90 percent of the fastest-growing and highest-paying jobs require some postsecondary education, having a high school diploma and the…

This study investigated several aspects of occupational skill assessment as implemented in one state: (1) What is the extent to which student achievement on the cognitive component was related to their achievement on the psychomotor component of the technical skill assessments? (2) How efficiently was their overall composite attainment calculated?…

Federal law requires Pennsylvania, and all other states, to transition to a new calculation method for determining high school graduation rates. Beginning in 2012, using graduation data from the Classes of 2010 and 2011, the "4-Year Cohort Graduation Rate" calculation will replace the "4-Year Leaver Graduation Rate"…