This review critiques the highly-praised and influential 2001 study, "Getting Tough? The Impact of High School Graduation Exams," which concluded that "minimum competency," or high school "graduation exams," had no effect on student achievement. The review compares the test classifications of "Getting…

In Florida, civic illiteracy among middle and high school students is a pressing concern despite state initiatives to increase civic competence (Florida House of Representatives, 2019; FLDOE, 2023b; Florida Department of State, 2023). Recent scores on state civics and social studies standardized assessments reveal a disheartening fact--an average…

The research purpose was to investigate the differences between learning preferences (i.e., Active-Reflective, Sensing-Intuitive, Visual-Verbal, and Sequential-Global) determined by the Index of Learning Style and gender (i.e., Male and Female) in regards to standardized achievement multiple-choice test performance determined by the Illinois Nurse…

The study investigates direct and indirect preschool quality effects on emergent literacy skills (children's letter knowledge, oral skills, and interests and skills in print and communication) using quality indicators at process (ECERS-R, ECERS-E), structure (e.g. class size) and belief (e.g. support creativity) level. The study included a sample…

Within the last decade, there has been a significant shift in the field of social work toward competency-based education. This article details the use of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) Adapted for Social Work Performance Rating Scale. We used the measure to evaluate specific practice competencies among students (n = 33)…

This report is a companion to a study that found that high school grade point average was a stronger predictor of performance in college-level English and math than were standardized exam scores among first-time students at the University of Alaska who enrolled directly in college-level courses. This report examines how well high school grade…