Many school systems in the United States face the prospect of renovating existing buildings rather than constructing new facilities because of budgetary limitations and constraints. The least disruption to the educational process when a building is scheduled for renovation is to move the student body to a vacant building. This option is not…

Studies have not conclusively established whether teacher job satisfaction improves student achievement or whether the advantages to students from having satisfied teachers vary with the broader school culture. In this article, we investigate two research questions: (1) Is there a relationship between teacher job satisfaction and students' math…

The Texas Afterschool Centers on Education is the program administered through the Texas Education Agency (TEA) for the federally funded 21st Century Community Learning Center (CCLC) grants. The Texas ACE Austin Cycle 9 program is composed of a compilation of activities at 10 AISD campuses that provide a comprehensive range of high quality and…

AISD promotes access to sustained learning for all students in music, visual art, drama, and dance. This report discusses the relationship between sequential fine arts participation and student outcomes for the school year 2017-2018 and how the relationships differ based on student characteristics (i.e., race, ethnicity, special education status…

AISD promotes access to sustained learning for all students in music, visual art, drama, and dance. This research brief summarizes key points from the full report (published separately) which discusses the relationship between sequential fine arts participation and student outcomes for the school year 2017-2018 and how the relationships differ…

This report examines the relationship between participation in the Afterschool Centers on Education (ACE) and student academic outcomes at the 16 Cycle 8 ACE campuses. Students' years of participation in ACE was positively associated with better student outcomes. Specifically, those with more years of ACE participation had better STAAR passing…

The purpose of the study was to examine the relations among a single item school readiness screener, social/emotional ratings, and academic performance. A prior study found that single item kindergarten readiness ratings completed in the fall predicted end-of-year academic and behavior outcomes even after controlling for baseline scores. Here, we…

This action research study examined the relationship between teacher performance and student achievement in reading language arts and mathematics. The study sought to determine if teacher evaluation methods used to determine teacher performance, had a relationship in improving student achievement. The researcher investigated the topic using…

This working paper summarizes the results of a study of leadership in elementary and secondary schools. The study focused in particular on instructional leadership -- the extent to which school leaders focus on the core activities of teaching and learning -- and teacher leadership -- the extent to which teachers have input into school…

The Board of Education's mission is to equitably educate the whole child so that every student graduates with the tools to reach their full potential (Houston Independent School District (HISD), 2019). To succeed in their mission, the board participates in Lone Star Governance, whose intent is to provide a continuous improvement model for…

We use matched employee-employer records from the teacher labor market to explore the effects of late teacher hiring on student achievement. Hiring teachers after the school year starts reduces student achievement by 0.042 SD in mathematics and 0.026 SD in reading. This reflects, in part, a temporary disruption effect in the first year. In…

It has been common knowledge for decades that poor and working-class students tend to experience "summer learning loss," a drop in performance between spring and fall that serves to widen the gap between students. However, new research shows that the reality of summer learning loss is more complex. Megan Kuhfeld draws on data from the…

Articles in this issue examine (1) the primary sources of variability in reading and language achievement among Spanish-speaking English learners (ELs) in the United States, (2) the extent to which poor performance at the end of grade 2 is identifiable in developmental trajectories beginning in kindergarten, (3) the relations among core reading…

Psychological factors such as grit and self-efficacy have been heralded as powerful predictors of performance. Their joint contribution to the prediction of early adolescents' school success has not been fully investigated, however. The purpose of this study was to examine U.S. elementary and middle school students' (N = 2,430) grit (assessed as…

The U.S.'s education system has been in a state of crisis for decades. Reform attempts addressed with each administration, such as "A Nation at Risk" during the Reagan campaign, "No Child Left Behind" during the Bush administration, and the most recent, Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative, elucidate America's…