Researchers have long traced achievement gaps in the elementary years back to readiness gaps at the start of kindergarten. Educators seeking to address these gaps, which are associated with race and ethnicity, home language, disability status, and indicators of economic disadvantage, need systematic ways to identify which children need what kinds…

California public schools enroll some 1.2 million students who are classified as English learners (ELs), representing a little more than 19 percent of the statewide student population. Given the size of this population and given the state's efforts over the last decade to recommend to districts materials lists for high-quality, standards-aligned…

When students first enroll in college, they are required to demonstrate readiness for college-level work. Course placement depends on standardized assessments, and students who do not attain a satisfactory score are typically assigned to developmental (e.g. remedial) education courses. The theory behind this approach has been that remedial…

For several years, WestEd's Measure to Learn and Improve (MLI) project team has kept California state policy leaders informed about the statewide implementation of the California Academic Standards in English language arts and mathematics, by summarizing and disseminating results from the RAND Corporation's annual American Educator Panel (AEP)…

An ever-increasing proportion of high school students in the United States today aspire to graduate from college. Yet statistics indicate that the percentage of college students receiving bachelor's degrees has remained relatively constant over the past 25 years, that it now takes on average 6 years to get a four-year college degree, and that…