This study is designed to assess the effects of states' adoption of college- and career-ready (CCR) standards on student achievement. Relying on state-level NAEP data from 1990 to 2015, we use comparative interrupted time series analyses to assess whether the adoption of CCR standards led to a larger improvement in student achievement in states…

Principals are increasingly held accountable for school achievement. This paper reports the results of a mixed methods sequential Quan --> Qual research study to explore how middle school principals created a culture of academic optimism (AO) that promoted high student achievement (SA). Based on the analysis of AO scores from 26 schools, mostly…

This paper describes a secondary analysis of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) reading scores by gender. Data were national public 4th- and 8th-grade reading scores from composite and subscales for 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2013. Twelfth-grade scores for composite and literary experience from 2005, 2009, and 2013 and gain…

The overall impact of unions and collective bargaining agreements on student achievement has produced a literature with decidedly mixed results. Unions are seen to have both positive and negative influences on a teachers' ability to perform the teaching act. This study researches the impact of unions on state level student achievement, controlling…

Using publically available data, states coded as "blue" based upon results from the 2004 presidential election were significantly higher in education funding than were states coded as "red." Students in blue states scored significantly higher on outcome measures of math and reading in grades four and eight in 2004 and 2007 than did students in red…

Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) data from one rural school system covering four groups of children for a consecutive three year period was used to study the impact of transient students entering the school system. The analysis compared native children (those on roll since the first year) with transient children added to or deleted…

In 1998 and again in 2002, samples of eighth grade students in California were tested in reading as part of the state-level component of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). In each of these years, all eighth graders in the state were also required to participate in the state's accountability testing, which included the reading…

Kentucky's goal of reaching academic "proficiency" by 2014 illuminated problematic findings in 2002 reading test scores: 44.30% of middle and 71.25% of high school students scored below "proficient." The research question was, "Do teaching practices in schools with high reading achievement scores differ from teaching practices in schools with low…

On July 14, 2006, the U. S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) released a study that compared the performance in reading and math of 4th and 8th-graders attending private and public schools. Using information from a nationwide, representative sample of public and private school students collected in 2003 as…

Under the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, the administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) became mandatory for all states in mathematics and reading for grades four and eight. Under NCLB the stated role and purpose of collecting achievement data from states varies from being a "discussion tool" to a…

Background: The Hawaii Department of Education (HDOE) launched its Hawaii State Assessment (HSA) in spring, 2002, within the context of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) Act of 2001 and its mandates to close the "achievement gaps" between subgroups of students. Thus, it is important to investigate the extent to which student…