As parents, communities, educators, and policymakers continue to assess the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student learning in America, many have turned to recently released results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). NAEP measures what students know and what they can do in several tested subjects, including reading,…

Purpose: Following recent federal legislation and related policy changes, co-teaching evolved rapidly as a strategy to provide students with disabilities access to the same curriculum as students without disabilities while receiving instruction in the least restrictive environment. It is unclear if co-teaching is an effective instructional…

American education has problems, almost everyone is willing to concede, but many think those problems are mostly concentrated in America's large urban school districts. In the elite suburbs, where wealthy and politically influential people tend to live, the schools are assumed to be world-class. Unfortunately, what everyone knows is wrong. Even…

In an attempt to increase the effectiveness of instruction in California's public schools, educators, policymakers, and researchers are looking for ways to boost the quality of teacher evaluations. This report explains the complex relationship between state policy on teacher evaluation and local practice. It also describes prevailing criticisms of…

To achieve perpetually better test results each year as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), teachers in successful schools such as Leroy Anderson Elementary in San Jose, California, will "try anything" to raise scores, as the school's principal stated in an interview with "The San Jose Mercury News." In schools…

This project focuses on the policies and practices of school boards (or mayors or others who govern public schools), and how their priorities can make a tangible difference in the academic success of kids living in poor communities. Instead of focusing on deficits of poverty, the researchers wanted to stress school board action as an effective…

More than 1 million people have watched the online video in which Salman Khan--a charming MIT math whiz, Harvard Business School graduate, and former Boston hedge-fund analyst--explains how he began tutoring his cousins in math by posting short lessons for them on YouTube. Other people began watching the lessons and sending Khan adulatory notes.…

This report provides information about the performance of California's 2016 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2016. Beginning with the Graduating Class of 2013, all students whose scores are college reportable, both standard and…

The adoption of Common Core State Standards has increased the need for assessments capable of measuring more performance-based outcomes. This monograph brings together the current literature and resources for the development and implementation of performance assessment. The text was written as part of a project-based graduate course and has…

This research brief describes work done for RAND Education and documented in "Pain and Gain: Implementing No Child Left Behind in Three States, 2004-2006", Brian M. Stecher, Scott Epstein, Laura S. Hamilton, Julie A. Marsh, Abby Robyn, Jennifer Sloan McCombs, Jennifer Russell, and Scott Naftel." The three states discussed are:…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact (positive, negative, or neutral) of Accelerated Readers (AR), a standard based intervention, on the academic achievement of English Language Learners at Carolina Herrera Elementary School. Carolina Herrera Elementary School, was analyzed using these specific lenses: (1) curriculum and…

This study examines trends in Black student achievement and in the Black-White achievement gap over the period 2000 to 2007, employing data from ten states drawn from the NAEP Grade 8 mathematics assessments. Results are obtained for three levels of aggregation: the state, school poverty stratum within the state, and schools within poverty…

This paper profiles California's test score trends through 2008-09. In 2004, the mean scale score on the state 4th grade reading test was 341 for non-Title I students and 315 for Title I students. In 2008, the mean scale score in 4th grade reading was 379 for non-Title I students and 340 for Title I students. Between 2004 and 2008, the mean scale…

This study investigated some issues regarding the validity of the Scholastic Achievement Test (SAT) Subject Test: Korean with Listening. The SAT Korean has been administered just once a year since its inception in 1997. As of March 2006, it had been administered nine times. However, SAT foreign language tests are not as rigorously researched as…

This report provides information about the performance of California's 2012 graduating seniors who took the ACT as sophomores, juniors, or seniors; and self-reported at the time of testing that they were scheduled to graduate in 2012 and tested under standard time conditions. This report focuses on: (1) Performance: student test performance in the…