In the 1950s and 1960s, students practiced ducking under their desks in case of an atomic bomb attack. We know that this was silly and provided no protection and many school practices that are popular today are equally silly. This book explores a wide range of what the authors label "duck and cover" policies--ideas that may have started…

Few questions in public education discourse benefit as much from research-based evidence as the question of class size--the pursuit of the ideal number of students that should be co-located for any particular period of instruction. But for policymakers, research on class size can be an embarrassment of riches, and much of the research appears to…

In recent years, propensity score matching (PSM) has gained attention as a potential method for estimating the impact of public policy programs in the absence of experimental evaluations. In this study, we evaluate the usefulness of PSM for estimating the impact of a program change in an educational context (Tennessee's Student Teacher Achievement…

This report discusses the results of the third year--1998-99--of California's Class Size Reduction (CSR) program. Assessments of the program show that CSR was almost fully implemented by 1998-99, with over 92 percent of students in K-3 in classes of 20 or fewer students. Those K-3 classes that had not been reduced in size were concentrated in…

Retention of students began soon after the introduction of graded elementary schools in the mid-1800s. As early as 1911, research started to show that retention failed to remedy the difficulties of academic achievement and social adjustment exposed through graded schools. Educators today have a number of options other than retention designed to…

Research studies on class size date back to 1900. Common sense has suggested that small classes lead to greater academic achievement, but most research on the effects of class size on achievement have been inconclusive. Furthermore, the financial costs and political consequences of reducing class size have generally prohibited the adoption of…

The Act To Encourage the Expansion of Remedial Education Programs During Summer (P.A. 85-576), passed by the Connecticut General Assembly, provided local and regional boards of education with the opportunity to offer students in grades K through 8 remedial summer school services. Summer Incentive monies were granted to 25 programs from Fiscal Year…

To support a comprehensive look at the problem of increasing minority student achievement in the Montgomery County Schools (Maryland), this report reviews the literature to identify factors affecting minority achievement and to learn from 20 years of programs aimed at low achievers. Section I describes three types of intervention programs: (1)…