This paper provides a perspective on the manner in which Irish post-primary teachers interpreted and implemented a set of guidelines created by the Department of Education and Skills (DES) in Ireland when faced with the cancellation of the traditional high stakes Leaving Certificate (LC) examination due to COVID-19. Subject teachers were asked to…

Statewide policies can impact enrollment patterns of students. At one Texas University, 11th-grade Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills scores were predictive of success in students' first college-level mathematics course, but many students--those most at risk of failure--seem to have avoided taking a mathematics course in their first year at…

A university counseling center engaged a therapy dog program for an outreach activity to reduce stress as students prepare for final exams at a large culturally diverse university. This article describes the rationale, planning, and implementation of the activity; presents an evaluation summary; and provides recommendations and implications for…

This study extends previous research investigating the effects of state-wide exit exams by studying the change from a class-based to a state-wide exit exam system over 5 years, using multilevel analyses and examining mediating effects of teachers' practices on students' motivational orientations. In this multi-cohort study, we analyzed in…

The General Certificate of Education (GCE) A* grade was first awarded to students in 2010. It was introduced to assist higher education institutions in differentiating between the highest performing students and to promote and reward greater stretch and challenge. This paper, based on a synthesis of key policy documents, an analysis of…

We present five frameworks for explaining which U.S. states adopted high school exit examination policies at particular points in time. The frameworks correspond to issues of academic achievement, education spending, economic conditions, racial/ethnic heterogeneity and policy diffusion. Using event history techniques we find that states with…