In this study we explore the longitudinal impact of effective school factors on student achievement over a five-year period in an urban school district. By collecting teacher survey data from urban schools in a Midwest school district and analyzing the survey data alongside student achievement, we identified several factors associated with student…

Four-day school weeks are becoming increasingly common in the U.S., but their effect on achievement is not well-understood. Using a difference-in-differences approach, we conduct the most representative student-level analysis to date of the effects of four-day weeks on student achievement and within-year growth using NWEA MAP Growth data. We…

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,…

Research suggests that elementary school absenteeism can contribute to deficits in achievement. It is less clear how the timing and growth in rates of attendance shape early elementary school achievement. The present study examined the role of absenteeism in pre-K and early elementary school in the context of third-grade achievement, along with…

This study examined how students' motivational regulation affects their academic performance based on the self-determination theory (SDT). The research involved data analysis from over 7,056 sixth-grade students in 446 South Korean elementary schools. We applied a stepwise multi-level modeling (MLM) approach to assess the influence of five…

The current study investigated the effects of school mobility on the academic achievement of different racial/ethnic groups in four cohorts of students from a very large urban school district. In this study, I compared within-year and between-year mobility and, most importantly, account for all the schools students attended over the study period.…

Social Emotional Learning (SEL) programs abound in schools worldwide, adopted in large part on limited and varied evidence that the social/SEL skills acquired in these programs contribute to academic achievement. However, large-scale studies with the most common SEL program in the United States (Second Step®) have yielded no evidence of academic…

This study builds on previous research investigating management organizations (MOs), charter school locations, and closure by examining the effects of MO type (EMO, CMO and freestanding schools), racial enrollment, student achievement, and the community characteristics surrounding each charter school in Ohio's eight largest counties with the…

We used multilevel mixed modeling to test the extent to which students' music achievement scores were related to their reading and math achievement scores. Of the four levels examined (individual students, classrooms, schools, and districts), only individuals and districts accounted for a significant portion of the total variance in achievement…

Inequitable learning opportunities are a leading contributor to the persistent literacy achievement gaps evident between historically marginalized students and their more affluent peers. This study investigated the impact of a community school reform effort in an urban middle school. The community school initiative focused on meeting the complex…

Although magnet schools were created in the 1960s to integrate schools, their policy, legal, and demographic context has changed dramatically, making it more difficult for them to integrate. As it becomes more difficult for magnet schools to integrate, other benefits, such as improved student achievement, become more important. At the same time,…

This study sought to answer the following questions: (1) Is it feasible to develop Academic Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and collect data on them across member urban school districts? (2) Are comparisons between districts on academic performance measures valid and reliable? (3) Do districts collect and maintain requested KPI data in a way…

In practice, teacher turnover appears to have negative effects on school quality as measured by student performance. However, some simulations suggest that turnover can instead have large positive effects under a policy regime in which low-performing teachers can be accurately identified and replaced with more effective teachers. This study…

The purpose of this study was to fit theoretical models of prediction to urban students' decisions to enroll and persist in music ensembles using academic achievement, socioeconomic status (SES), number of parents/guardians at home, mobility, ethnicity, and sex as explanatory variables. Through multinomial logistic regression, I built predictive…

In practice, teacher turnover appears to have negative effects on school quality as measured by student performance. However, some simulations suggest that turnover can instead have large, positive effects under a policy regime in which low-performing teachers can be accurately identified and replaced with more effective teachers. This study…