In a spring 2010 survey, Austin Independent School District prekindergarten teachers with more than 18 students reported a greater frequency of students' disruptive behaviors than did similar teachers with fewer students. Most teachers gave positive ratings to their support team, central office staff, and the curriculum.

This qualitative research case study examined the supports required for 31 academically average 10th grade students to succeed on three dual enrollment college courses. Conceptually, support was a team effort, with contributions considered from administrators, faculty, parents and students. The paper documents support contributions from all four…

In 2007 Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence from British colonial rule. The golden jubilee offered an opportunity to take stock of how the country had progressed in expanding education and the challenges for the future. This paper offers a critique of the journey, highlighting the challenges and progress. What reforms in education has taught…

Educational Policy Improvement Center (EPIC) researchers visited 38 public high schools around the United States in 2007 and 2008 with the goal of validating and operationalizing a definition of college readiness. Schools in the sample were selected because they were demonstrating success at enabling more students from underrepresented groups to…

Many students believe they are equipped for college only to discover that they need additional preparation in understanding how to apply content and/or improvement of study skills. How can public schools work together with colleges to better prepare students? Great scrutiny of the curriculum in conjunction with determination of college-entrance…

This study reports the preliminary results from a field test of the College-readiness Performance Assessment System (C-PAS), a large-scale, 6th-12th grade criterion-referenced assessment system that utilizes classroom-embedded performance tasks to measure student progress toward the development of key cognitive skills associated with success in…

This study examined the degree to which achievement gaps existed among different ethnic and racial groups before kindergarten entry. Using published data on the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort, this study found statistically significant differences in language knowledge and skills, literacy knowledge and skills, and mathematics…

Hispanics account for over one-fifth of newborns in the United States. Hispanic children, on average, achieve at lower levels from kindergarten forward than the non-Hispanic White majority and Asian Americans. Increasing the percentage of Hispanic children who enter kindergarten "ready" for school constitutes one of the nation's most…

This study examined the correlation between the DIAL-3 scores of disadvantaged students from Head Start, students from other preschools, and students that did not attend a preschool. The study consisted of 110 students who were currently attending kindergarten at an elementary school in Rockland County. The instrument used for this study was the…

In the mainstream discourse on child development and education, 'school readiness' has been conceptualized as the skills and knowledge that children need when they enter school in order to learn effectively in the school environment. However, school readiness is an idea which is entwined with our beliefs about child development and child needs (E.…

This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's state-funded optional extended year program for the 2007-2008 school year.

The OEYP state-funded program provides extended learning for students who are at risk of academic failure. This report summarizes Austin Independent School District's OEYP activities during 2008-2009.

Determining the cross-cultural equivalence of multilingual tests is a challenge that is more complex than simple horizontal equating of test forms. This study examines the functioning of a trilingual test of preschool readiness to determine the equivalence. Different forms of the test have previously been examined using classical statistical…

The purpose of this study is to compare school readiness of children who had pre-school experiences and children without such experiences on the basis of scientific thinking skills. This comparison is held in terms of variables of age, gender, and socio economic status. The questions of the study in relation to the purpose of the study are as…

The purpose of this research was to elucidate a continuum of postsecondary text difficulty and to use it to quantify gaps between the text difficulty of high school textbooks and various reading materials likely to be encountered in the most widely chosen postsecondary domains of endeavor--the university, the workplace, the military and…