For over thirty years, research has been conducted on the relative benefits of integrating the sixth through eighth grades within the structure of the K-8 elementary school or of establishing a freestanding middle school structure. While the available research clearly supports the positive effects of the K-8 structure on academic achievement in…

The rate of poverty for children in the United States is far higher than for other advantaged nations (Payne & Biddle, 1999) with an estimated 13.3 million children, 18% of all children, living below the poverty threshold (U. S. Bureau of the Census, 2008). An estimated 5.8 million children live in extreme poverty where their families earn less…

Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) data from one rural school system covering four groups of children for a consecutive three year period was used to study the impact of transient students entering the school system. The analysis compared native children (those on roll since the first year) with transient children added to or deleted…

This paper empirically examines the underlying premise of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) school choice provision that students will perform better when they are given the opportunity to transfer from persistently low-performing schools to higher performing schools. We focus on students who move from schools that must offer choice under NCLB in a…

Eighty-seven percent of all Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) students instructed during 2002-03 were continuously enrolled (CE) in one school from the first week of the school year until the last day of school. Across grade levels CE percentages steadily increased from only 82% in kindergarten to 94% in grade 12, except for a dip to 83% in…