As America's key industries offer high salaries in return for candidates with the necessary abilities and credentials to fill their vacancies, the knowledge, skills, and third-party industry credentials earned in secondary Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs seem a close match. Using a non-experimental, quantitative study, this research…

The purpose of this study was to determine if K-12 public school students are receiving adequate college and career readiness guidance (CCR Guidance), and, if not, to characterize the nature, extent, and cause of the shortfall. Adequacy is defined as the ability of students to meet with a CCR Guidance counselor; the counselor's willingness to get…

This paper reviews state strategies for incorporating performance assessment in policy and practice. Specifically, the paper reviews the use of performance assessment in 12 states in the Innovation Lab Network, a group committed to developing systems of assessment that provide meaningful measures of college and career readiness. This review…

Cross-connections between the sciences and mathematics are emphasized through the Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core State Standards in the United States. One topic that is a common bridge between math and science is the concept of measurement and unit conversions in the metric/English system. This article uses a mixed-methods…

Developmental education has been examined from the perspective of students, college instructors, administrators, and policy-makers. However, the perspectives of one important stakeholder group--high school teachers--has not been included in the research literature on this topic. The purpose of this study was to allow teachers to be heard on the…

States use their accountability systems to identify low-performing schools, which can receive added support and are expected to improve. Alternative schools serve students whose needs are not met in a regular school. They often serve at-risk students who are struggling academically or behaviorally. Given this unique population, the Government…

Of the nearly 100 different types of high school diplomas that are awarded across all fifty states and the District of Columbia, less than half prepare students for success in college and career. And while the national high school graduation rate is at an all-time high, the rate at which students earn these college- and career-ready (CCR) diplomas…

Across the United States, schools and districts are redesigning high school toward the goal of better engaging and preparing students for success after graduation. This report highlights four innovation schools and districts--(1) Noble High School in Maine; (2) International High School at Langley Park in Maryland; (3) the Science and Math…

This paper outlines current trends, progress, and possibilities for fostering more authentic ways to assess students' competencies and mastery of skills needed for college, work, and civic life in the 21st century. It provides an introduction to performance assessments and their value. The authors highlight efforts to develop such assessments in…

The report on which this brief is based describes performance assessments and their value for guiding and evaluating high school students' learning, as well as informing colleges and universities about what students know and can do. It explores state and local policies that support the use of such assessments, along with emerging higher education…

The past few years have seen a persistent and consistent focus on Career Technical Education (CTE), including a particular focus on graduation requirements. This brief from Advance CTE highlights a few ways in which states are exploring embedding and elevating CTE programs, assessments and experiences within their statewide graduation…

We apply a utilization-focused evaluation [UFE] approach to an evaluation of Virginia's latest comprehensive accountability policy--the Standards of Accreditation (SOA). Our study focuses on the implementation experiences of district and high school level administrators in four urban districts. This study is significant in two important ways.…

The goal of the Rural Math Excel Partnership (RMEP) project, a development project funded by the U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant program, was to develop a model of shared responsibility among families, teachers, and communities in rural areas as collective support for student success in and preparation for advanced…

This study examined teachers' interpretations of Virginia's high school exit exam policy through the teachers' responses to a survey. The survey was administered to teachers from one school district in Northern Virginia. The teachers selected for the survey taught a subject in which students must pass a Standards of Learning (SOL) test in order to…

This literature review on high school capstone courses found that, while the idea of such courses has been around since the 1990s, such courses have not been widely implemented and virtually no research exists on their effectiveness. Nevertheless, several high schools around the country have implemented senior culminating projects in which high…