The School Quality or Student Success (SQ/SS) indicator was one of the most talked about and biggest decisions that fell to the states in drafting their new ESSA accountability plans. This memo summarizes the chosen SQ/SS measures for each state, DC, and Puerto Rico. The most common SQ/SS measures among the states are: (1) Chronic Absenteeism (37…

In previous columns in this department, scholars have taken to task the decontextualized and dehumanizing policies of recent and current federal education policies in the United States. While deconstruction of these policies is crucial, these moves must be followed by reconstruction. In this edition of the Adolescent Literacy Policy column,…

This working paper is a summary of the author's dissertation, submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for her doctoral degree under the supervision of Dr. Judith Torney-Purta (successfully defended February 4, 2009). In her study she explored potential explanations for disparities in adolescent civic engagement through a comprehensive…

Background: Studies exploring the relationship between students' achievement and the quality of the classroom learning environments have shown that there is a strong relationship between these two concepts. Learning environment instruments are constantly being revised and updated, including for use in different cultures, which requires continued…

Many studies have reported gaps between Latino and non-Latino adolescents in academic and political outcomes. The current study presents possible explanations for such gaps, both at the individual and school level. Hierarchical linear modeling is employed to examine data from 2,811 American ninth graders (approximately 14 years of age) who had…

Seemingly endless tinkering and adjustment of the structure of education in the United States over the past century have led to the adoption of different school forms (grouping particular grades into separate schools) at different times. These different school forms necessitate transitions between schools (e.g., from a middle school to a high…

This study involves a two-year longitudinal investigation of adolescent participation in unstructured youth recreation centres and the development of antisocial behaviour. Participants were 1163 adolescents who represented 92% of all eighth-grade students in the town of Orebro, Sweden, during the fall of 1999. Antisocial young people and those…

Despite heated debate over detracking, little research exists on how the reform plays out in the classroom. This article, based on a year-long interpretive study of a detracked ninth-grade program at a diverse urban high school, focuses on the encounter between the "official" practices of the detracked classrooms under study and the…