School leaders have joined a six-state effort by the National Governors Association (NGA) aimed at making Advanced Placement (AP) classes more widely available, recruiting nontraditional students to enroll, and working to make sure those students succeed in the college-level courses. Participants say the NGA initiative is showing impressive early…

This cross-sectional study examined risk and asset factors thought to be associated with fighting among a sample of 1,642 African American children and adolescents in a central Alabama school district. Results show that poor grades, parental abuse, and gang affiliation were significant risk factors associated with higher frequency of fighting.…

This paper reports on a study of the Biomedical Sciences Preparation Program (BioPrep), a rural component of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation's funded projects. The program was intended to give Alabama students (particularly minorities) academic competency in mathematics, science, and oral and written communication relevant to medical professions.…

This issue focuses on what recent research from Tennessee, Texas, Massachusetts, and Alabama says about the most significant factor that impacts student achievement: the teacher. After presenting teacher effectiveness data from the four states, it discusses what makes an effective teacher, focusing on the need for strong verbal and math skills,…

Preschool, elementary, and secondary programs are evaluated in this report. Part 1 of the report consists of the following 1975 statistics: operation and services, dissemination, evaluation, a listing of major problem areas, the interrelationship of Title I with other federal programs, nonpublic schools, a general evaluation of the projects,…

This report provides data on the academic achievement gap that separates low-income and minority students from other students, examining how well different groups of students perform in Alabama and noting inequities in teacher quality, course offerings, and funding. Included are tables and data that provide: a frontier gap analysis (a comparison…

This report compares Alabama's reading and mathematics performance on the most recent administrations of the state assessment with performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). To indicate how Alabama is doing in narrowing the academic achievement gap between African American, Latino, or low-income students and their…