States often use summative assessments as a measure to determine students' readiness for college and career tracks. Some states administer the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (Smarter Balanced) or Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) assessments to measure high school student performance on college and…

This brief provides an overview of inequity and barriers to Native student academic success and ways to address them. It also reviews how gifted and talented programs and advanced placement courses have impacted Native students. As many tribal communities live in rural areas, this brief further discusses education and career awareness for those…

This year, many high-school teachers in the district where the author teaches experienced exam anxiety because midterms--as they had come to know and love them--were no more. For a variety of reasons, the semester exam schedule looked very different. More to the point is the new philosophy about exam content and format that underpinned the…

In a more consistent and viable manner than ever before, education in Alabama is moving toward its ultimate goal of providing every student with a quality education, thereby preparing them for work, college, and life after high school. Alabama's graduation rates from 2002 to 2008 increased significantly, tripling the national average increase and…