Purpose: The purpose of this dissertation was to determine the extent to which school instructional calendar configuration (i.e., year-round or traditional) influenced Grade 5 student academic performance as reflected on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) test as a function of student ethnicity (i.e., Hispanic, White, and Black)…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) All I Want for Christmas: Congress Continues Deliberations on Fiscal Year 2012 Funding; Education Programs Potentially Facing…

Development of adaptive tests used in K-12 settings requires the creation of stable measurement scales to measure the growth of individual students from one grade to the next, and to measure change in groups from one year to the next. Accountability systems like No Child Left Behind require stable measurement scales so that accountability has…

This Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) is designed to keep Florida moving forward toward national and international competitiveness. Florida will compare its National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) scores to those of the top five states and its Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Progress in International…

This report focuses on the extent to which students who are academically far off track in fourth or eighth grade in Kentucky catch up by eighth or eleventh grade. We studied three recent cohorts of Kentucky students whose eighth-grade ACT Explore® scores were more than one standard deviation below the ACT Explore benchmark scores associated with…

The authors' purpose was to study the efficacy of patterning instruction in improving the reading and mathematics proficiency of first grade children. Patterning instruction was compared to equal time and effort spent on instruction on reading or mathematics or social studies, which are control conditions in this experiment. The question for…

The purpose of this study is to identify the self-reported research-based instructional and assessment practices used by third through fifth grade teachers among rural school environments in Western Pennsylvania which have attained Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) pursuant to statewide assessments. Specifically, this study examines the…

This paper provides practical guidance for researchers who are designing and analyzing studies that randomize schools--which comprise three levels of clustering (students in classrooms in schools)--to measure intervention effects on student academic outcomes when information on the middle level (classrooms) is missing. This situation arises…

Despite a quarter-century of reform, US schools serving students in poverty continue to lag far behind other schools. There are proven programs, but these are not widely used. This large-scale experiment evaluated a district-level reform model created by the Center for DataDriven Reform in Education (CDDRE). The CDDRE model provided consultation…

In light of the strong correlation between Kindergarten performance and later cognitive and achievement outcomes, this paper investigates the link between student achievement and the educational background characteristics of Kindergarten teachers. This study will utilize the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Kindergarten Cohort (ECLS-K), a…

This article provides a cultural-historical (CHAT) analysis of the practices used by an effective teacher of Latino/a children previously classified as "underachieving" and "beginning/novice" English Language Learners. Although the teacher would not describe her practices in strict CHAT, or sociocultural theory (SCT) terms, our analysis shows that…

Score equity assessment is an important analysis to ensure inferences drawn from test scores are comparable across subgroups of examinees. The purpose of the present evaluation was to assess the extent to which the Grade 8 NAEP Math and Reading assessments for 2005 were equivalent across selected states. More specifically, the present study…

The "Comparative Indicators of Education" report series has been published on a biennial basis since it began in 2002, although this year's is the first to expand its focus to the G-20 countries, having previously been focused on the G-8 countries. "Comparative Indicators of Education in the United States and Other G-20 Countries:…

With increased pressures on school districts to enhance student achievement, administrators are implementing professional learning communities (PLCs) as one method to improve student performance (DuFour & Eaker, 1998, Hord, 1997, Thompson, Gregg, & Niska, 2004). Educators working within a PLC experience a shared ideology, supportive…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact block scheduling has on (a) student academic achievement, discipline, and attendance, and (b) administrator, teacher, and student perceptions. The study compared 2005-2010 data from a high school utilizing the A/B block schedule and a high school under a traditional schedule, in one suburban…