In 2008, the California State Board of Education voted to require all students to enroll in algebra by 8th grade. This policy initiative, yet to be actually implemented, represents the culmination of a decades-long movement toward offering algebra instruction before the traditional high school years. Nationally, the proportion of 8th grade…

In response to growing concerns about college readiness, the Kentucky legislature revised the state's assessment and accountability system in an effort to increase the number of students who are ready for college when they graduate. The Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education responded by redefining…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the predicting effect of high school students' metacognitive skills, exam anxiety and academic success levels upon their psychological well-being in a provincial center with a medium-scale population in Eastern Anatolian Region. The research group included totally 251 high school students including…

The primary goal of the study presented in this dissertation is to describe 11th-graders' understandings, through different representations, of: (1) the definition of function, (2) the production of a function, and (3) the interpretation of a function. In addition, this dissertation seeks to describe the relationship between 11th-graders' scores…

American education was going through dramatic change in the beginning of the 21st century. The way children were educated was constantly evolving. Public schools, private schools, parochial schools, charter schools, and many other types of educational institutions were affected by various federal and state regulations since the 1960's. The…

The purpose of this study was to identify the principal behaviors that would define an instructional leader as being a data-driven school administrator and to assess current school administrators' levels of being data-driven. This research attempted to examine the relationship between the degree to which a principal was data-driven and the…

Background: The context is the new Texas STAAR end-of-course testing program. Purpose: The authors developed a logistic regression model to predict who would pass-or-fail the new Texas chemistry STAAR end-of-course exam. Setting: Robert E. Lee High School (5A) with an enrollment of 2700 students, Tyler, Texas. Date of the study was the 2011-2012…

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of socioeconomic status on the achievement of high school students participating in a one-to-one laptop computer program. Students living in poverty struggle to achieve in schools across the country, educators must address this issue. The independent variable in this study is socioeconomic…

In grade 8 (the only grade in which subgroup trends were analyzed by achievement level), Michigan showed across-the-board gains--improvements in both reading and math at the basic, proficient and advanced levels for all racial/ethnic subgroups, low income students, and boys and girls. Results on achievement gaps were mixed. Comparable data were…

In two studies (ns = 312 and 1,149) with 9- to 12-grade students in pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) and IB Diploma programs, we evaluated the reliability, factor structure, measurement invariance, and criterion-related validity of the scores from the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R). Reliabilities of the five SAAS-R subscale…

In two studies (ns = 312 and 1149) with 9-12 grade students in pre-International Baccalaureate (IB) and IB Diploma programs, we evaluated the reliability, factor structure, measurement invariance, and criterion-related validity of the scores from the School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised (SAAS-R; McCoach & Siegle, 2003a). Reliabilities of…

This report presents Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) examination participation and performance results in Texas public schools for the 2014-15 school year. Data are provided by student characteristics, including race/ethnicity; gender; and economic, at-risk, English language learner, immigrant, and migrant statuses.…

This study evaluated the benefits of item enhancements applied to science-inquiry items for incorporation into an alternate assessment based on modified achievement standards for high school students. Six items were included in the cognitive lab sessions involving both students with and without disabilities. The enhancements (e.g., use of visuals,…

With the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, public school districts in the United States are working toward improving the achievement of their students on state standardized tests of accountability. Through the use of a quantitative methodological approach, the purpose of this study was to better understand the relationship, if any,…

This study explores the relationship between academic achievement and reading motivation among adolescent boys. We seek to understand (1) if motivational construct scores change meaningfully over time, (2) what relationship exists between the achievement scores and reported reading motivation, and (3) if students who report higher reading…