This study addressed the issue of low reading proficiency in Kentucky's students with disabilities, potentially exacerbated by post-third-grade curriculum changes. This quasi-experimental ex post facto comparative study aims to determine differences in the grade four reading achievement gap in students with disabilities compared to students…

The share of students attending charter schools has been rising. There is evidence that charter school growth has increased socioeconomic segregation of students between schools. In this paper, we assess whether charter school growth affects how students are organized within nearby traditional public schools (TPS). We use administrative data from…

The kindergarten through twelfth-grade school experience, marked by a series of transitions between grades and learning environments, has a significant impact on academic performance, behavior, and social/emotional connection for students. The purpose of this study is to determine if the academic performance of third through eighth-grade students…

This quantitative, correlational study aimed to investigate the relationships between collective teacher efficacy (CTE), its enabling conditions (EC-CTE), and student achievement in third through eighth grades in Colorado. Leveraging the theoretical foundations established by Rotter (1954), Bandura (1977) and expanded by Tschannen-Moran et al.…

There has been extensive research done on varying leadership styles as well as how school leaders employ these styles in order to improve students' academic achievement. However, little literature exists that discusses how leadership style affects a principal or assistant principal's approach to managing student discipline. The purpose of this…

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) has periodically published reports using results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to compare the proficiency standards that states set for their students. Since standards vary across states, the results of the various state assessments cannot be used to directly compare…

Education is often depicted as one of the best ways out of poverty. At the same time, research over many decades finds that most educational outcomes are strongly correlated to poverty. It is not likely that these two themes are true at the same time. Either schools are windows of opportunity and help overcome or mitigate poverty and other…

The purpose of this study was to understand the nature of writing instruction across time and grade bands. We used quantitative and qualitative analyses of teacher interviews and video records of classroom instruction of English language arts writing instruction in 97 fourth- through eighth-grade classrooms in 2010 and 2018. Video records showed a…

In the literature, marginalisation is vaguely defined as a state, a process, or both. Qualitative research has indicated that many students experience temporary marginalisation at some point in school, suggesting that the phenomenon is best characterised as fleeting. This presents a challenge for researchers in terms of measuring marginalisation…

This report highlights the results of Austin Independent School District's 4th- and 8th-grade students on the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card.

Schools often track students to classes based on ability. Proponents of tracking argue it is a low-cost tool to improve learning since instruction is more effective when students are more homogeneous, while opponents argue it exacerbates initial differences in opportunities without strong evidence of efficacy. In fact, little is known about the…

In this brief we examine how variability in students' math and reading test scores changed across the pandemic, including whether increased dispersion was concentrated at one part of the test score distribution. Using reading and math assessment data from a sample of 8 million students in grades 3-8 in 24,000 public schools who took MAP Growth…

The purpose of this technical appendix is to share more detailed results and to describe more fully the sample and methods used in the research included in the brief, "The Widening Achievement Divide during COVID-19." The authors investigated two main research questions in this brief: (1) To what degree have students' reading and math…

This report focuses on the COVID-19 pandemic in the Kalamazoo Public Schools District in Kalamazoo, Michigan, which closed its doors to students from mid-March 2020 to June 2021. During this time, instruction transitioned from face-to-face to virtual, with students having three options for virtual instruction. In addition to individual KPS student…

This report highlights the results of Austin ISD 4th- and 8th-grade students on the 2017 National Assessment of Educational Progress, also known as the Nation's Report Card.