This Statistics in Brief investigates some factors that may contribute to achievement gaps in the summer after kindergarten, including differences in children's experiences, such as participation in summer care arrangements, programs, and activities. Specifically, the brief describes students' summer nonparental care arrangements, program…

Building upon the research findings in an earlier ACT Research Report (Westrick, 2016), this study used data from 119,131 students at 26 four-year institutions to make comparisons between STEM majors earning semester GPAs of 3.0 or higher and their STEM peers earning semester GPAs less than 3.0. The results indicate that the higher-performing…

We estimate racial/ethnic achievement gaps in several hundred metropolitan areas and several thousand school districts in the United States using the results of roughly 200 million standardized math and reading tests administered to public school students from 2009-2013. We show that achievement gaps vary substantially, ranging from nearly 0 in…

Using date from 120,612 students at 26 four-year institutions, this report provides a description of STEM majors entering four-year postsecondary institutions and those who persist through four years of study. The results indicate that persisting STEM majors enter college with very high levels of pre-college academic achievement as measured by the…

There is mounting evidence of substantial "teacher quality gaps" (TQGs) between advantaged and disadvantaged students, but practically no empirical evidence about their history. We use longitudinal data on public school students, teachers, and schools from two states--North Carolina and Washington--to provide a descriptive history of the…

The School Composition and the Black-White Achievement Gap study was undertaken by the National Center for Education Statistics to present both descriptive and associative information on the relationships among the percentage of students in a school who were Black (referred to as "Black student density" or "density"), the…

This study documents the magnitude of the gaps in student performance for public school students in Pennsylvania and estimates the economic consequences of those education performance gaps. Although Pennsylvania is one of the top-scoring states on the 2013 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on average, the achievement gaps between…

As costs of attending college have risen and access to higher education has declined, policymakers and community college officials are looking to online learning as one way to better serve student needs, increase access, promote completion, and increase transfer to four-year universities--all in a cost-effective manner. Online learning is still a…

This 2015 Brown Center Report (BCR) represents the fourteenth edition of the series since the first issue was published in 2000. It includes three studies. Like all previous BCRs, the studies explore independent topics but share two characteristics: they are empirical and based on the best evidence available. The studies in this edition are on the…

Extending the school day through programs that will supplement core courses, such as offering intensive, after-school tutoring or small-group study sessions in reading and mathematics, is one method districts use to boost school performance and narrow educational achievement gaps between students of different racial and economic backgrounds (Redd…

This report uses statistics to examine current conditions and changes over time in education activities and outcomes for different racial/ethnic groups in the United States. This report shows that over time, students in the racial/ethnic groups of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, American Indian/Alaska…

This report provides detailed information on the size of the achievement gaps between Hispanic and White public school students at the national and state levels and describes how those achievement gaps have changed over time. Additional information about race/ethnicity in NAEP is given in Appendix A. Most of the data in this report is derived from…

Results show that SAT performance is related to third year retention rates. Even after controlling for student and institutional characteristics, returners had higher SAT total scores than non-returners, and the performance gap is not due to differences in the demographic makeup of the two groups. Furthermore, while differences in retention can be…

This report measures trends in performance among urban schools receiving federal School Improvement Grant (SIG) awards as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA). The Council of the Great City Schools aims to document how member districts of the Council of the Great City Schools implemented SIG and specifically what…

Each state and jurisdiction that participated in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2011 mathematics assessment receives a one-page snapshot report that presents key findings and trends in a condensed format. Overall results, achievement level percentages and average score results, comparison of the average score in 2011 to…