Using data from Achieving the Dream: Community Colleges Count, this issue of "Data Notes" looks at students who returned to their original Achieving the Dream institution after completing credentials or transferring to another institution. Forty-two percent of students who either received a degree or certificate or transferred from an Achieving…

After eight years of implementing the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and other school reforms, how much progress have states, school districts, and schools made in raising achievement for students from all backgrounds and closing achievement gaps based on race, ethnicity, income, and gender? To help answer this question, the Center on…

This paper profiles the student subgroup achievement and gap trends in North Dakota for 2010. In grade 8 reading and math (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), North Dakota showed across-the-board gains at the basic-and-above, proficient-and-above, and advanced levels for the state's major racial/ethnic…

This report from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) presents results from the 2009 NAEP in reading. Nationally representative samples of more than 178,000 fourth-graders and 160,000 eighth-graders participated in the 2009 NAEP in reading. At each grade, students responded to questions designed to measure their knowledge of…

This paper analyzes the ethically important moments that helped build, then break, and then negotiate the relationship between researchers and schools during an ethnographic-type study conducted by the team of researchers from a prominent private university. I posit that the researchers' unskilled approach culminated in producing written…

To help inform policymakers and the public about the progress of education in the United States, Congress has mandated that the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) produce an annual report, "The Condition of Education." This year's report presents 42 indicators of important developments and trends in U.S. education. These…

A gap exists between the degree to which African Americans embrace the cultural value of higher education attainment (Butchart, 1988; Du Bois, 1935; Mickelson & Greene, 2006; Washington, 1900; Woodson, 1919) and the reality of their unsatisfactory undergraduate degree attainment at traditional white institutions (TWIs) (Allen, 1992; Allen,…

Representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in mathematics. Eighteen of the districts participating in the 2011 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) participated in earlier assessment years, while three districts…

Representative samples of fourth- and eighth-grade public school students from 21 urban districts participated in the 2011 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) in reading. Eighteen of the districts participating in the 2011 NAEP Trial Urban District Assessment (TUDA) participated in earlier assessment years, while three districts…

The Closing the Gap Clearinghouse was established by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) to bring together evidence-based research on overcoming disadvantage for Indigenous Australians. The Clearinghouse provides access to a collection of information on what works to improve Indigenous people's lives across the building blocks identified…

This report assesses Illinois' academic performance from early childhood through postsecondary, providing a snapshot of how Illinois compares to other states and nations as we collectively work to provide all students a world-class education. The analysis is divided into three parts: (1) The first section examines how Illinois public schools serve…

While the educational difficulties of poor black students are well documented and have been discussed extensively, the academic performance of well-off African American children has received much less attention. Even with economic and educational resources in the home, well-off African American youth are not achieving at the levels of their white…

This paper reports that the basic opportunity to learn does not exist in many countries, and that a concerted management focus to assure that schools provide basic elements of an opportunity to learn (OTL) could potentially yield big improvements in learning. The paper assesses: (1) what basic factors create the opportunity to learn; and (2) to…

Given South Africa's divided past, it is imperative to improve educational outcomes to overcome labour market inequalities. Historically white and Indian schools still outperform black and coloured schools in examinations, and intraclass correlation coefficients (rho) reflect far greater between-school variance than for other countries. SACMEQ's…

In an effort to answer the "Educational Call to Arms", our national public schools have turned to Advanced Placement (AP) courses as the predominate vehicle used to address the lack of academic rigor in our public high schools. Advanced Placement is believed by many to provide students with the rigor and work ethic necessary to…