Rural Mississippi schools often face challenges in providing equitable access to Advanced Placement (AP) courses, particularly in STEM fields. This lack of access limits opportunities for high-achieving students to pursue rigorous STEM coursework and related careers. The AP STEM program aims to improve access to AP STEM courses for high-achieving…

Across the United States, African American males face barriers to securing a quality education. Barriers such as educational gatekeeping, and low identification, have caused African American males' enrollment in advanced placement courses to be at a rate lower than all other ethnicity and gender populations. A qualitative approach to research was…

This study aims to explain the relationship between student performance in the International General Certificate Secondary Education (IGCSE) and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program (IBDP) as well as explore the predictors of the IBDP scores in languages, sciences, and mathematics. A purposive sample of 338 high school students was…

This research is a qualitative case study aiming at analyzing the effects of accreditation on school system elements. Accordingly, interviews were conducted with administrators and teachers at an IB-PYP accredited school. There are questions directed towards understanding the impacts of the accreditation on the elements of open system in the…

Miami-Dade County Public Schools had 23,062 graduates in the 2018-2019 academic year. Most students, 90%, achieved a standard diploma (24 credits). Some students chose an alternative curriculum where 506 (2%) achieved an Advanced International Certificate of Education (AICE) diploma and 368 (2%) achieved an International Baccalaureate (IB). An…

As students and educators head back for another pandemic-disrupted school year, the third and final edition of Quality Counts 2021 provides a broad perspective on the nation's K-12 system, with summative grades and scores for the U.S. and each state on a range of academic, financial, and socioeconomic indicators that underlie student achievement…

This study analyzes the correlation between required years of Bible courses and academic rigor at select private Christian schools. These findings, derived from the author's doctoral research, show a threshold of under 4 years of required Bible courses for optimal academic perception among these schools. This threshold correlates with a medium to…

The problem addressed in this study was that low-income, high-achieving students have lower success rates in higher education institutions socially and academically compared to students of higher-income status regardless of academic ability. The purpose of this qualitative, case study was to investigate how low-income students who excelled in high…

The U.S. economy requires a highly educated workforce, yet too few black, Latino, and low-income students attend, persist, and graduate from college. The present study examines the college outcomes of participants in a model Advanced Placement® (AP) intervention to shed light on its effectiveness and determine whether improving AP participation…

We use statewide administrative data from Missouri to document the prevalence of Industry Recognized Credential (IRC) programs in public high schools and understand the characteristics of students who complete IRCs. We show that 9 percent of Missouri students complete an IRC during their senior year of high school. IRC completers have lower…

Closing the achievement gap is critical to the future of the nation, but more importantly it provides economically disadvantaged students a learning experience equivalent to their peers. Many districts attempt to battle low performance in Title I schools through special programs or addressing issues such as class size instead of taking into…

The 2023 edition of the Annual Condition of Education Report (COE) marks the 34th edition of the report. For over 30 years, the Department has published the COE in order to provide education stakeholders critical data about the status of Iowa's education system. The 2023 COE includes a wide variety of content including information about Iowa's…

This study explored the achievement, engagement, and school climate perceptions of African American males in urban high schools. Hierarchical regression and focus group interviews were used to analyze male sample (n = 114) data from a larger study. Findings suggest that students' perceptions were influenced by having information about and access…

We examined how ACT® Aspire® (from grades 8 to 10), PreACT® (from grade 10), and ACT® test scores (from grades 10 and 11) relate to students' chances of scoring a 3 or higher as well as 4 or higher on selected Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Data for the study was available for 49,220 students from 318 high schools who had taken at least one AP…

The Virginia Department of Education's Virtual Virginia (VVA) program delivers more than 90 supplemental online courses to more than 10,000 middle and high school students each year. The department partnered with Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Appalachia to examine the relationship between students' participation in a subset of 31 VVA…