After scrambling to raise students' skills in math and reading, state and school administrators are beginning to place renewed emphasis on science, with the approaching mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) squarely in mind. That effort is taking shape on many fronts, from the design of new tests in science subjects to the revamping of…

Ignoring the adequacy of floors and item gradients for tests used with young children can have serious consequences. Thus, because of the importance of early intervention for reading and math problems, we used the criteria suggested by Bracken for adequate floors and item gradients, and reviewed 15 reading tests and 12 math tests for ages 4-0…

Charter schools--public schools that are exempt from many of the procedural regulations that apply to regular public schools--are a widespread but poorly-studied form of education reform. With nearly 2,700 charter schools now educating more than 684,000 children nationwide, policymakers and parents need to know how the education charter schools…

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) emerged in the late 1990s as a comprehensive outreach program seeking to enhance awareness of and readiness for college among low-income middle school students. After controlling for students' preprogram test scores and school characteristics, findings indicate that…

Understanding the consequences of growing up poor for a child's well-being is an important research question, but one that is difficult to answer due to the potential endogeneity of family income. Past estimates of the effect of family income on child development have often been plagued by omitted variable bias and measurement error. In this…

Current methods of combining multiple measures of student performance have been subjective and have lacked evidence of external validity. This study examined the use of predictive discriminant analysis (PDA) as a means of finding the best combination of variables to predict performance on a standards-based mathematics assessment. Data from 261…

This paper compares modified Guttman and item response theory (IRT) based procedures for classifying examinees in ordered levels when each level is represented by several multiple choice test items. In the modified Guttman procedure, within-level number correct scores are mapped to binary level mastery scores. Examinees are then assigned to levels…

A survey of 1,021 human resource managers found that 35.5 percent test job applicants, promotion candidates, and/or current employees; 22 percent of applicants and 15 percent of employees tested deficient in basic skills; and only 5 respondents spent more than $10,000 on remedial training. (SK)

The interrelation of 4 achievement tests was investigated with 202 students (mean age 11) with specific learning disabilities. Although, in general, achievement subtests claiming to measure the same academic construct were moderately to strongly related, significant mean differences were present on several measures claiming to measure the same…

This study examined how resources, distribution inequality, and biases toward privileged students affected academic performance. Fifteen-year-olds from 41 countries completed a questionnaire and tests in mathematics, reading, and science. Multilevel regression analyses showed that students scored higher in all subjects when they had more resources…

The literature on school absences has focused predominantly on the reasons for student truancy, or it has assessed only aggregate student absences in their effect on achievement. However, this study brings forth a new issue: the relationship between types of absences--excused versus unexcused--and school performance. With a quantitative model of…

This paper reports the results of the "National Survey of Accommodations and Alternate Assessments for Students who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing in the United States (National Survey)". This study focused on the use of accommodations and alternate assessments in statewide assessments used with students who are deaf or hard of hearing. A…

At the request of the Hawaii Department of Education, Achieve conducted a study of Hawaii's 2005 grade 10 State Assessment in reading and mathematics. The study compared the content, rigor and passing (meets proficiency) scores on Hawaii's assessment with those of the six states that participated in Achieve's earlier study, "Do Graduation…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the achievement gap between minority and white students by analyzing 1996 and 2000 reading and mathematics scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) at grades 5, 8, and 10. The focus was on score increases, the achievement gap between white and minority students, and whether or not a…

This handbook was developed to assist teachers in monitoring and charting the progress of kindergarten and primary grade students in the Chicago, Illinois, public schools. It is a loose-leaf binder of formal and informal tools designed to provide teachers with ongoing information about students' learning so they can promote continuous growth…