This report summarizes the postsecondary intentions and scholarship monies earned by high school graduates of the Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) in SY08-09. As part of the process for planning for postsecondary life, seniors indicate whether they are planning to attend a 4-year college/university, junior/community college, or…

The purpose of this study was to conduct a critical analysis of (1) the disparities between the SAT scores of Black and White students, and Hispanic and White students, for 2004 and 2005 and (2) what those disparities suggest about the effectiveness of the State of Virginia "SOL" program and the Federal "No Child Left Behind"…

This document describes a dialogue process that took place in Charleston, West Virginia, between and among district and school-level administrators, who are predominantly European American and African American community leaders. AEL, a federally funded regional educational laboratory, and the Kanawha County School District (where Charleston is…

This study investigates the role of stress in the substance use behavior of black and white college students. We examine the issue across race and look both at measures of traumatic stress and life stress. A perusal of the research literature reveals that the relationship between traumatic stressors and substance use behavior among both black and…

The authors evaluate the validity of the Social Provisions Scale for physical activity among adolescent Black (n = 896) and White (n = 823) girls. The girls completed the scale and measures of subjective norms and physical activity in the eighth and ninth grades. Within the sample of White girls, the Social Provisions Scale contained 24 items that…

There has been longstanding concern about achievement differences across ethnic groups. Inattention is a significant factor associated with underachievement, and higher ratings of inattention have been found for some minority groups. The present study examined the relationship between inattention and achievement across Caucasian, African American,…

This study sought to address the lack of experimental research examining the influence of contextual factors on African American students' learning. A total of 162 low-income African American and White fourth graders were randomly assigned to ethnically homogeneous, communally structured groups of three to work on a motion acceleration task using…

State and federal accountability reforms are putting considerable pressure on schools to increase the achievement of historically low-performing groups of students and to close test score gaps. In this article, we exploit the differences among the large number of elementary schools in New York City to examine how much schools vary in the…

This paper presents the research and methodology and analyses used for the "Gaining Ground in the Middle Grades" research. This appendix contains the following sections: (1) Overview; (2) Constructing the Survey Data File; (3) Constructing Composite Independent Variables (Subdomains); (4) Constructing Longitudinal Outcome Variables; (5)…

This paper empirically examines the underlying premise of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) school choice provision that students will perform better when they are given the opportunity to transfer from persistently low-performing schools to higher performing schools. We focus on students who move from schools that must offer choice under NCLB in a…

When a state test and National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) are both measuring the same construct, the achievement gaps between subgroups on both tests should be the same. However, if a teacher or school engages in "teaching to the test" then student performance may improve on one test but not on another. We hypothesized that…

The Council of the Great City Schools has prepared this seventh edition of "Beating the Odds" to give the nation another look at how inner-city schools are performing on the academic goals and standards set by the states. This analysis examines student achievement in math and reading through spring 2006. It also measures achievement gaps…

In a world shaped by global competition, preschool education programs play an increasingly vital role in child development and school readiness. There is growing awareness that early learning's impacts persist across children's life spans, affecting educational achievement, adult earning and even crime and delinquency. Preschool education is…

Knowledge about racism is a critical component of educational curricula and contemporary race relations. To examine children's responses to learning about racism, European American (Study 1; N = 48) and African American (Study 2; N = 69) elementary-aged children (ages 6-11) received history lessons that included information about racism…

As Harold Lasswell and his colleagues observed of the rhetoric of power (Language of Politics, 1965), some words become magic, with "inexplicable powers" attributed to them. "Access" has become such a word in the discourse of higher education. The sloganistic use of the term implies that someone, somewhere, is preventing somebody from doing…